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JCth  CENTURY  SCIENCE  SERIES 


Prehistoric  Man 


(Side  view.;  (Front  view.) 

Early  Paleolithic  Man 

(From  the  restoration  by  Richard  S.  Lull,  Ph.D.) 

1  'ate  1.  Prehistoric  Man,  frontis. 


PREHISTORIC  MAN 


BY 


JOSEPH    McCABE, 

Author  of   "  Evolution, "  etc. 
Translator  of  Fauth,  Giinther,   Haeckel,  etc 


Illustrate 


•■e*- 


NEW  YORK 

Frederick  A.  Stokes  Company, 
Publishers. 


PREFACE 


Few  phases  of  the  scientific  doctrine  of  evolution 
have  a  greater  fascination  than  the  long  story  of  the  rise 
of  man  from  his  primitive  level  of  stunted  savagery  to 
the  fulness  of  modern  civilisation.  During  a  period  of 
stupendous  length  man  wandered  over  the  earth  without 
even  the  rudiments  of  culture.  Our  present  knowledge 
puts  the  dawn  of  civilisation,  in  the  valley  of  the  Nile 
and  on  the  heights  ahove  the  valley  of  Mesopotamia,  at 
about  10,000  years  ago.  But  man  had  then  existed  on 
this  planet  during  a  period  which  hardly  any  competent 
student  would  now  estimate  at  less  than  100,000  years. 
In  that  long  night  preceding  the  dawn  of  history  were 
slowly  shaped  the  ideas  and  institutions  from  which 
civilisation  would  eventually  issue. 

To  trace  the  lines  of  this  gradual  rise,  to  restore  the 
forms  and  the  habits  of  the  strange  races  of  men  who 
spread  over  the  planet,  to  indicate  the  causes  of  their 
progress  or  their  halting  on  the  upward  path,  is  the  aim 
of  the  present  manual. 

A  kindly  reviewer  of  the  writer's  previous  contribution 
to  the  Twentieth  Century  Science  Series  ("Evolution") 
observed  that  it  was  so  lucidly  written  that  the  reader 
might  be  tempted  to  regard  the  more  speculative  passages 
in  it  as  established  truths.  This  danger  will  be  met,  not 
by  a  sacrifice  of  lucidity,  but  by  persistent  care  to  distin- 
guish stimulating  conjecture  from  accredited  fact.     We 


VI  PREFACE 

have,  considering  the  very  recent  date  of  the  science  of 
prehistoric  man,  a  really  remarkable  mass  of  direct  relics 
of  the  earlier  races  of  mankind  ;  nor  must  we  forget  that, 
if  we  proceed  with  care,  much  can  be  learned  from  living 
races  which  have  dropped  out  by  the  wayside  on  the 
upward  march,  and  live  to-day  as  our  ancestors  lived  in 
the  Old  Stone  Age. 

Yet  our  knowledge  is  still  fragmentary,  and  great  care 
is  needed,  in  putting  together  the  mosaic  of  prehistoric 
life,  to  assign  a  proper  value  to  each  piece  of  evidence 
and  each  link  of  connecting  speculation.  In  this  little 
work,  indeed,  the  author's  chief  concern  is  with  the 
acknowledged  facts  and  such  general  truths  as  are 
usually  presented  in  the  literature  of  the  subject.  That 
literature  (English,  American,  French,  German,  and 
Italian)  has  been  assiduously  searched  and  compared  by 
the  writer,  who  has,  in  addition,  examined  many  fine 
collections  of  prehistoric  remains  and  implements,  and 
has  some  personal  acquaintance  with  the  instructive 
labour  of  collecting  them. 

J.  M. 


CONTENTS 


»©<<x>- 


PAGE 

Chapter  I. — The  Founding  of  the  Scievce     ...  3 

II. — The  Earliest  Traces  of  Man      ...  17 
III. — The  Beginning  of  the  Old  Stone 

i"V';r.      ..,                           ...                           ...                           •••  £<J 

IV. — Progress   during   the   Old    Stone 

Age  ...             ...             ...             ...  46 

V. — The  Men  of  the  New  Stone  Age  63 

VI. — The  Monument  Builders               ...  82 

VII. — The  Metal  Age  and  the  Dawn  of 

History           ...             ...             ...  101 

Bibliography            ...            ...            ...            ...  117 

Index          ...            ...            ...            ...             ...  121 


■ 


vu 


The  Publishers  are  indebted  to  Dr.  Lull,  The  American 
Journal  of  Science,  The  Independent  (New  York), 
The  Royal  College  of  Surgeons,  The  Natural  History 
Museum  (South  Kensington),  The  Trustees  of  the  British 
Museum,  and  Messrs.  Watts  &>  Co.,  for  permission  to 
reproduce  illustrations  in  this  volume. 


LIST   OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 


3j*SC 


PAGE 

Early  Paleolithic  Man  ...  ...  ...  frontis. 

From  the  restoration  by  Richard  S.  Lull,  Ph.D. 

Series  of  Prehistoric  Skulls — Casts  of  (1)  The 
Java  Calvaria,  Pithecanthropus  Erectus  ;  (2) 
The  Spy  Calvaria,  No.  1  ;  (3)  The  Neander- 
thal Calvaria  ;  (4)  The  Tilbury  Skull ;  (5)  The 
Engis  Cranium  ...  ...  ...  19 

Early  Paleolithic  Remains — Skull-cap  and  Femur 

of  Spy  Skeleton  ...  ...  ...         32 

Series  of  Prehistoric  Skulls — Java,  Neanderthal 

Engis...  ...  ...  ...  ...         51 

Paleolithic    Drawing — Reindeer    Feeding — from 

the  Grotto  of  Thayngen  (Switzerland)         ...         56 

Neolithic  Arrow-heads  of  Flint,  from  Ireland     ...         82 

Collection  of  Bronze  Implements  from  Minster, 

Thanet         ...  ...  ...  ...  110 


Prehistoric  Man 

CHAPTER    I 

THB     FOUNDINO     OP    THB     SCIENCE 

Few  sciences  have  offered  so  much  difficulty  to  the 
fertile  inventors  of  names  as  that  which  treats  of  pre- 
historic man.  If,  as  is  usual  in  scientific  nomenclature, 
we  try  to  compress  the  real  description  of  it — the 
science  of  prehistoric  races — into  a  compound  Greek 
word,  we  get  an  uncouth  term,  Palethnology,  which  has 
not  found  general  favour.  Many  French  and  German 
writers  are  content  to  call  the  science  "  Prehistory,"  which 
is  hardly  more  satisfactory.  The  two  names  in  most 
common  use  are  Prehistoric  Archaeology  and  Prehistoric 
Anthropology.  Of  these  the  latter  is  much  to  be  pre- 
ferred. Archaeology  is  the  study  of  a  limited  aspect  of 
human  products,  generally  within  the  historical  period; 
and,  though  Anthropology  has  so  wide  a  range  as 
scarcely  to  be  a  distinct  science  at  all  to-day,  it  is 
precisely  this  comprehensive  outlook  which  we  cultivate 
in  prehistoric  science.  We  are  to  deal  with  every 
discoverable  aspect  of  the  life  of  man  before  the  historical 
period  opens. 

Of  far  greater  interest  and  importance  than  the  ques- 
tion of  name  is  the  sharp  struggle  of  the  new-born  science 
for  recognition  and  independence.    Until  little  more  than 

3 


4  Prbhistoric  Man 

half  a  century  ago,  as  the  centenary  of  Darwin's  birth 
reminds  us,  there  was  a  general  and  deep-rooted  convic- 
tion that  the  whole  space  of  humanity's  life  fell  within 
the  narrow  province  of  the  historian,  and  with  this 
conviction  the  accumulating  discoveries  of  earlier  remains 
had  to  maintain  a  long  and  heated  conflict. 

About  half  a  century  before  the  commencement  of  the 
Christian  era,  the  Roman  poet  Lucretius  had  set  out  in 
verse  a  rough  and  imperfect  scheme  of  evolution.  Men 
had,  he  contended,  slowly  risen  from  barbarism  to 
civilisation.  An  age  in  which  men  used  only  weapons  of 
stone  had  preceded  the  age  of  metal;  and  Lucretius 
even  made  the  fortunate  conjecture  that  an  age  of 
bronze  had  preceded  the  age  of  iron.  There  was,  how- 
ever, so  general  a  conviction  that  the  story  of  mankind 
had  opened  with  a  golden  age  that  the  great  truth 
propounded  by  Lucretius  was  almost  entirely  tossed 
aside  until  the  nineteenth  century.  Some  of  the  ancient 
Italian  traditions,  as  well  as  the  oldest  Chinese  traditions, 
had  preserved  the  truth  about  early  human  history,  but 
— from  causes  which  it  would  be  out  of  place  to  investi- 
gate here — nearly  all  the  other  races  of  mankind  had 
the  tradition  of  the  primitive  Golden  Age.  Not  only  did 
the  classical  poetry  of  Greece  and  Rome  enforce  this, 
but  we  find  it  in  the  sacred  legends  of  India,  Persia, 
Egypt,  and  Babylonia,  and  even  in  the  ruder  myths  of 
our  old  Germanic  ancestors  and  in  those  of  the  natives 
of  America. 

Passing  over  the  occasional  fruitless  effort  to  revive 
the  theory  of  Lucretius  during  the  Middle  Ages,  we  need 
note  only  two  efforts  to  shake  or  evade  the  prevalent 


The  Founding  of  the  Sciencb  5 

conviction  until  the  modern  science  began  a  direct  assault 
on  it.  In  the  later  Middle  Ages  a  theory  was  advanced, 
and  was  widely  discussed,  that  a  strangely  neglected 
race  of  men  had  been  created  before  Adam,  and  that 
there  were  obscure  references  to  their  descendants  in 
the  earlier  chapters  of  Genesis.  It  found  some  interested 
supporters  when  it  was  suggested  that  the  negroes  of 
Africa  might  be  the  descendants  of  these  Pre-Adamites, 
and  therefore  not  fully  entitled  to  human  rights,  but  the 
ingenious  speculation  was  discredited  and  forgotten. 

The  next  attempt  was  made  by  the  earlier  evolutionists 
at  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  and  beginning  of  the  nine- 
teenth century.  As  is  known,  however,  the  efforts  of 
Erasmus  Darwin  and  Jean  Lamarck  met  with  little 
success.  Sheer  speculation  beat  harmlessly  against  the 
powerful  barrier  of  universal  prejudice.  Only  the 
discovery  of  positive  evidence  of  the  Stone  Age  would 
avail  to  make  a  serious  impression  on  it.  Such  dis- 
coveries began  to  accumulate  in  the  second  quarter  of 
the  nineteenth  century. 

Stone  implements  of  vast  antiquity  are  strewn  so 
liberally  over  the  surface  of  the  earth,  or  found  in  such 
quantities  in  the  superficial  beds  which  are  often  dis- 
turbed, that  one  may  wonder  how  the  old  idea  had 
survived  so  long.  In  point  of  fact,  these  implements 
were  quite  well  known.  Arrow-heads  and  heavier  hand- 
implements  of  stone  had  been  picked  up  from  time 
immemorial.  One  might  very  well  ascribe  them  to  early 
Britons,  without  going  outside  the  range  of  history;  and 
there  were  also  the  "  antediluvians  "  and  the  "  fairies  " 
to  whom  one   might,  and   often   did,  attribute    them. 


6  Prehistoric  Mav 

Travellers  of  grave  repute  have  described  how  these 
small  arrow-heads  were  shot  at  them  by  unseen  hands  in 
the  England  of  their  time.  In  Scotland  the  prehistoric 
axe-heads  which  were  taken  from  Neolithic  graves  were 
popularly  known  as  "  Purgatory-hammers,"  or  the 
implements  with  which  the  dead  man  was  to  knock  at 
the  doors  of  the  nether  world.  In  the  Vatican  Museum 
itself  there  have  been  Paleolithic  implements,  of  vast 
antiquity,  for  three  centuries. 

These  implements  could  not  be  properly  interpreted 
until  geology  was  in  a  position  to  discuss  the  situation 
in  which  they  were  found,  and  no  sooner  was  the 
science  established  than  genuine  discoveries  of  prehis- 
toric relics  began  to  be  announced.  Geology  began  to 
claim  the  earlier  chapters  of  humanity's  life  as  belonging, 
not  to  history,  but  to  the  scientific  explorer  of  the  earth's 
crust,  and  a  few  ardent  students  in  France,  Belgium, 
and  Denmark  devoted  themselves  to  special  inquiry  on 
the  subject.*  Between  1827  and  the  middle  of  the 
century  a  number  of  finds  were  reported.  In  1836  a 
Danish  student,  Thomsen,  determined  by  positive  evidence 
the  successive  ages  of  stone,  bronze,  and  iron,  which  are 
especially  clear  in  Denmark.  Several  human  bones  of 
great  (but  disputed)  antiquity  were  discovered  among 
the  bones  of  long-extinct  animals,  the  exploration  of  the 
floors  of  caverns  was  conducted  with  great  zeal,  and  the 
question  of  "  fossil  man "  was  agitating  the  scientific 
world.     Unfortunately  great  geologists  like  Cuvier  clung 

*  In  this  country  Mr.  John  Frere  had  in  1797  ascribed  the 
flints  he  found  at  Hoxne  to  a  very  remote  race,  without  the 
use  of  metal. 


The  Founding  op  the  Science  7 

to  the  old  prejudice,  and  the  discoveries  were  treated 
with  disdain;  in  some  cases  most  valuable  remains  have 
been  wholly  lost. 

By  the  middle  of  the  century  the  new  science  began  to 
gather  strength.  In  France  the  struggle  centred  about  the 
discoveries  of  Boucher  de  Perthes,  a  retired  physician, 
who  had  for  some  years  been  collecting  implements  in 
the  deposits  of  the  valley  of  the  Somme.  These  deposits 
were  at  that  time  known  in  geology  as  the  "diluvium," 
or  the  material  heaped  together  by  the  Deluge,  and 
Boucher  de  Perthes  approached  them  with  the  innocent 
intention  of  searching  for  traces  of  "antediluvian  man." 
In  1847  he  published  his  discoveries  in  a  work  which 
he  called  Celtic  and  Antediluvian  Antiquities.  The 
prejudice  which  he  encountered  drove  him  to  more 
vigorous  search,  and  he  soon  discovered,  and  announced, 
that  the  flint  implements  of  Abbeville  belonged  to  a  race 
of  men  far  anterior  to  the  supposed  antediluvians.  By 
1859 — when,  it  is  interesting  to  note,  our  English 
geologists  (Sir)  Joseph  Prestwich  and  (Sir)  John  Evans, 
intervened  with  great  effect  in  his  favour — the  battle 
was  virtually  won  and  the  science  accredited. 

In  the  meantime  (1856)  a  most  important  diseovery 
had  been  made  in  Germany.  In  the  Neanderthal  (or 
Neander  Valley),  near  Diisseldorf,  some  workmen  found 
a  peculiar  type  of  human  skeleton  in  the  course  of  their 
excavations.  A  student  of  the  new  science  managed  to 
rescue  some  of  the  chief  bones,  including  the  cranium, 
and  they  are  now  on  view  in  the  Diisseldorf  Museum. 
It  is  now  universally  recognised  that  these  bones  belong 
to  the  earlier  part  of  the  Old  Stone  Age,  and  that  they 


8  Prehistoric  Man 

are  typical  of  the  race  of  men  which  then  peopled  a 
good  part  of  Europe.  Even  in  1856  geologists  had  to 
allow  that  the  bones  lay  in  a  bed  of  very  great  antiquity, 
and  that  the  type  of  skull  was  at  or  below  the  level  of  the 
lowest  savagery.  The  search  in  caverns  and  superficial 
deposits  went  on  more  ardently  than  ever.  In  1863  Sir 
Charles  Lyell  gathered  together  the  scattered  finds, 
and  enforced  the  moral,  in  his  Geological  Evidences  of 
the  Antiquity  of  Man,  and  in  the  same  year  Huxley 
extended  the  doctrine  of  evolution  to  man,  in  his  famous 
Man's  Place  in  Nature,  and  so  provided  a  rational  frame- 
work for  the  new  discoveries.  Darwin  had,  it  will  be 
remembered,  published  the  Origin  of  Species  in  1859. 
As  the  doctrine  of  evolution  gained  adherents,  the  old 
prejudice  slowly  died. 

In  1854  Keller  had  announced  the  discovery  of  the 
Neolithic  pile-dwellings  in  the  Swiss  Lakes,  but  the  next 
great  controversy  broke  out  in  1867.  In  1859  Broca 
had  founded  the  Anthropological  Society  at  Paris,  and 
in  1865  G.  de  Mortillet  inaugurated  the  International 
Congress  of  Anthropology  and  Prehistoric  Archaeology. 
To  one  of  these  congresses  in  1867  came  a  French 
priest,  the  Abbe  Bourgeois,  with  a  story  that  he  had 
found  worked  flints  in  Tertiary  strata  at  Thenay.  The 
Tertiary  period  of  the  geologist  suggests  an  epoch  so 
remote  that  these  rude  flints  aroused  a  passionate  dis- 
cussion. I  may  say  at  once  that  they  are  not  admitted 
by  the  majority  of  modern  authorities,  though  at  the 
time  the  majority  of  the  scientific  commission,  to  whom 
they  were  entrusted,  declared  them  to  be  of  human 
workmanship.     The  man  of  the  Old  Stone  Age  was  now 


The  Founding  of  thb  Science  9 

freely  accepted.  The  question  was  whether  the  story 
did  not  run  back  to  a  much  older  period:  whether  we 
ought  not  to  admit  "  Tertiary  Man." 

It  would  be  superfluous  to  trace  the  growth  of  the 
science  from  1870  onwards.  Geologists  and  anthropolo- 
gists continued  to  occupy  themselves  with  the  inquiry, 
but  it  was  now  the  theme  of  a  special  science,  with 
groups  of  special  students  and  technical  magazines  and 
literature  in  every  advanced  country.  In  Germany  the 
science  was  long  hampered  by  the  authority  of  Rudolph 
Virchow,  President  of  the  Anthropological  Society,  who 
carried  with  him  to  his  grave  a  strange  and  unreason- 
able prejudice  against  evolution.  In  England,  France, 
and  Scandinavia,  the  science  has  for  decades  had  able 
leaders  and  an  ample  literature.  Italy,  Belgium  and 
Switzerland  are  hardly  behind  these  countries ;  and 
Spain  and  Austria  have  reported  some  remarkable 
discoveries  in  recent  years.  Both  North  and  South 
America  have  their  workers  and  literature,  and  the 
research  has  now  been  carried  to  some  extent  all  over 
the  civilised  world.  The  advance  of  the  science  becomes 
too  large  for  summary.  In  the  course  of  this  work  the 
reader  will  find  evidence  enough  of  its  vast  activity  in 
all  countries,  and  of  the  voluminous  literature  it  has 
created. 

From  the  enormous  accumulation  of  material  which 
half  a  century  of  research  has  given  us,  we  are  now  able 
to  sketch  the  general  outline,  and  fill  in  much  detail,  of 
the  prehistoric  life  of  humanity.  Even  if  we  had  found 
no  human  remains  whatever,  we  should  have  ample 
proof  of  the  gradual  rise  of  man  from  a  lowly  level  to 


10  Prfhistoric  Man 

the  threshold  of  civilisation.  Prom  roughly  worked 
stones,  in  which  we  barely  recognise  the  artificial 
chipping  that  fitted  them  for  primitive  man's  uses,  we 
pass  through  slow  and  steady  stages  of  improvement  in 
workmanship  until  we  reach  a  period  of  finely  polished 
stone  axes  and  delicately  chipped  arrows  and  lance 
heads.  After  these  we  find  man  experimenting  in 
copper — the  first  available  metal  that  would  meet  his 
eye — and  passing  quickly  to  the  use  of  bronze,  the 
harder  alloy  which  an  intelligent  being  would  soon 
devise.  Lastly,  in  the  full  dawn  of  history,  we  meet 
weapons  and  implements  of  iron. 

But  we  are  by  no  means  restricted  to  these  imperish- 
able memorials  of  man's  handiwork,  which  so  fully 
illustrate  the  gradual  rise  of  human  intelligence.  We 
have  now  a  very  fair  collection  of  actual  human  remains 
of  the  prehistoric  age,  and  they  are  in  entire  accord  with 
the  conclusion  we  draw  from  the  stone  implements. 
Of  the  men  of  the  early  Stone  Age  we  have  now  about 
ten  important  skulls  or  jaws,  with  many  other  bones. 
We  shall  see  that  these  exhibit  a  human  type  of  the 
very  lowest  level  known  to  us  ;  though  we  shall  have  to 
consider  certain  bones  found  in  Java  which  recall  an 
even  lower  and  much  earlier  level.  The  few  remains 
we  have  of  the  men  of  the  later  Old  Stone  Age  show  just 
such  an  increase  in  cranial  development  as  our  study  of 
their  handiwork  would  suggest,  and  this  improvement  is 
maintained  when  we  rise  to  the  New  Stone  Age.  For 
the  later  period  the  remains  are,  of  course,  abundant. 
In  a  word — as  will  be  seen  by  a  glance  at  the  photo- 
graphs I  have  taken — we  have  only  to  place  these  skulls 


The  Founding  of  the  Science  1 1 

in  a  chronological  series  to  perceive  at  once  the 
ascending  character  of  the  story  of  mankind. 

The  succession  of  stone  and  metal  ages  is  now  heyond 
cavil ;  though,  as  it  is  hardly  needful  to  say,  the  stages 
often  coexist  in  the  sense  that  one  race  may  remain 
at  the  earlier  level  while  another  pushes  forward  to 
a  higher  stage.  Many  savage  tribes  were  still  in  the 
Old  Stone  Age  in  the  nineteenth  century.  Some  (such 
as  the  Tasmanians)  remained  until  their  extinction, 
thirty  years  ago,  at  one  of  the  very  lowest  levels  of 
primitive  culture.  The  study  of  savages  is,  in  fact,  a 
most  instructive  parallel  to  the  study  of  prehistoric 
races.  Just  as  many  a  noble  family  may  look  back  on 
the  ranks  of  the  workers  as  its  original  level,  civilised 
peoples  may  look  back  on  more  primitive  races.  They 
are  fragments  of  the  early  waves  of  distribution  of  the 
human  family,  retaining  in  their  isolation  the  characters 
of  human  life  as  it  was  for  all  in  a  remote  antiquity. 
Some  of  them  have  still  the  low  type  of  skull  and  the 
crude  stone  weapons  of  the  earliest  prehistoric  man. 

But  in  the  arrangement  of  so  vast  a  mass  of  material 
and  so  extended  a  period  of  time  we  need  many  second- 
ary stages,  and  the  original  division  of  the  Stone  Age 
into  Paleolithic  (Old  Stone)  and  Neolithic  (New  Stone= 
polished  or  more  finely  chipped  stone)  is  now  much 
subdivided.  In  the  first  place  many  high  authorities 
admit  the  marks  of  human  workmanship  in  certain 
stones  which  go  back  far  earlier  than  the  beginning  of 
the  established  Paleolithic  period.  For  these  stones, 
which  we  will  presently  consider,  the  name  "  Eoliths  " 
(earliest   stones)    has   been   invented,   and   the  remote 


12  Prehistoric  Man 

period  to  which  they  belong  is  known  as  the  Eolithic 
period.  M.  Rutot,  the  great  Belgian  authority,  arranges 
them  in  three  stages — the  Reutelian,  Mafflian,  and 
Mesvinian. 

'The  Paleolithic  period  has,  until  recently,  usually 
been  divided  in  England  into  two  broad  sections — the 
(earlier)  age  of  the  River-drift  men  and  the  (later)  age  of 
the  Cave  men.  In  the  sense  that  the  older  Paleolithic 
men  »eem  to  have  lived  predominantly  in  the  open  air, 
and  left  their  implements  chiefly  in  the  gravels  of  the 
broad  rivers  of  the  time,  while  later  Paleolithic  men 
dwelt  mainly  in  caves  and  rock-shelters,  the  distinction 
has  a  broad  value.  But  it  is  fairly  clear  that  man  some- 
times inhabited  caves  from  the  start,  and  other  divisions 
are  now  adopted.  It  is  usual  to  admit  three  stages  in 
the  earlier  Paleolithic,  the  names  of  which  are  taken 
from  the  French  sites  where  we  find  them  best  exhibited 
— the  Chellean  (from  Chelles),  the  Acheulean  (St. 
Acheul),  and  the  Mousterian  (Le  Moustier).  Advanced 
students,  like  M.  Rutot,  add  an  earlier  stage  (the 
Strepyian) ;  others  subdivide  the  Chellean  and  Acheu- 
lean, or  combine  the  two ;  and  others  again  assign  the 
Mousterian  to  the  later  Paleolithic.  These  refinements 
may  be  ignored  until  later. 

The  upper  and  later  Paleolithic  is  divided  into  the 
Solutrean  and  Magdalenian,  the  names  again  being 
borrowed  from  typical  Prench  sites  (Solutre  and  La 
Madeleine).  We  thus  get  five  main  divisions  of  the 
Paleolithic,  which  correspond  to  different  levels  of 
culture  and  to  significant  modifications  of  climate  and 
animal  population.     Until  recent  years  the  Paleolithic 


The  Founding  op  thb  Scibncb 


13 


was  sharply  divided  from  the  Neolithic,  but  transitional 
types  have  now  been  discovered,  and  most  writers  inter- 
polate a  Mesolithic  (Middle  Stone  Age)  between  the  two. 
This  is  often  called  the  Azilian  (from  Mas  d'Azil).  We 
then  have  the  Neolithic — a  period  characterised  by  the 
finer  working,  and  often  the  polishing,  of  the  implements. 
This  again  has  its  subdivisions,  as  have  also  the  metal 
phases  which  follow  it.  All  these  sub-divisions  and 
their  meaning  will  be  fully  explained  as  we  reach  them, 
but  it  will  be  convenient  to  draw  up  now  a  scheme  of 
the  entire  series  for  reference.  In  order  not  to  confuse 
the  elementary  student  I  omit  the  more  contested  and 
finer  subdivisions. 

PHASES   OP   PREHISTORIC   DEVELOPMENT. 


Eolithic 

Rutot's     ... 

( 

Reutelian 
Mafflian 

Paleolithic    ... 

Earlier  ... 

i 

Mesvinian 

Chellean 

Acheulean 

Mousterian 

Later 

i 

Solutrean 
Magdalenian 

Mesolithic     ... 

Azilian 

Neolithic 

Copper 

Bronze 

Iron 

j  Hallstatt 
I  La  Tene 

f 


14  Prehistoric  Man 

The  relation  of  these  periods  to  the  periods  of  the 
geologist  may  be  briefly  dismissed.  The  geologist 
divides  the  entire  series  of  stratified  rocks  in  the  earth's 
crust  into  four  periods.  The  first  and  longest  of  these 
(the  Primary)  closes  with  the  beginning  of  the  great  age 
of  Reptiles  (Permian)  after  the  Coal-forests.  The 
Secondary  closes  with  the  deposit  of  the  Chalk.  If  we 
take  the  entire  story  of  the  stratified  rocks  to  extend  over 
55  million  years — a  moderate  estimate — these  two  periods 
will  occupy  49  millions  out  of  the  55.  There  is,  of 
course,  no  question  of  human  or  even  ape  remains  in 
either  of  them.  The  Tertiary  period  (on  this  scale)  will 
then  occupy  about  5£  million  years,  and  the  Quaternary 
(or  actual)  about  half  a  million.  There  is  no  question  but 
that  the  presence  of  man  can  be  traced  even  in  the 
earlier  part  of  the  Quaternary,  but  all  evidence  that  is 
claimed  for  the  Tertiary  is  much  disputed,  and,  as  I 
shall  have  frequently  to  refer  to  its  subdivisions,  it  will 
be  convenient  to  give  them  here  in  schematic  form : — 

THE   LATER   GEOLOGICAL   PERIODS. 


Quaternary 
(or  actual) 


Tertiary 


Holocene  (or  Recent) 
Pleistocene 

(   Pliocene 
Miocene 
Oligocene 
Eocene 


Lastly,  since  I  have  made  allusion  to  chronology,  a 
word  of  warning  must  at  once  be  given  to  the  reader. 


Thb  Pounding  op  thb  Sciencb  15 

In  geology  generally,  and  in  prehistoric  science  especi- 
ally, all  chronlogical  schemes   must   be  regarded  with 
great  reserve.     I  take  55  million  years  as  a  fair  average 
estimate  of  the  time  it  took  to  form  the  stratified  rocks 
of  the  earth's  crust,  but  a  few  eminent  geologists  would 
halve   this    (the   lowest    estimate),   while   many   would 
double  or  multiply  it.     So  in  regard  to  primitive  man 
Any  estimate  which  falls  short  of  100,000  years  since 
the  beginning  of  the  Paleolithic  period  may  be  ignored, 
but  it  is  difficult  to  go  beyond  this.     One  of  the  most 
careful  estimates  (that  of  Mortillet)  assigns  250,000  years 
for  the  whole  story  since  the  advent  of  Paleolithic  man, 
but  many  eminent  authorities  would  double  this.     Sir 
W.  Turner   has   recently   claimed   that   it    is    at   least 
100,000  years  since  the  beginning  of  the  Neolithic  age, 
and  it  is  generally  agreed  that  the  Paleolithic  was  at 
least  two  or  three  times  as  long  as  the  Neolithic.     Dr. 
Keane   claims  at  least  500,000  years    for   the   earliest 
undisputed  human  traces,  and  one  of  the  latest  German 
writers,    Dr.    Hoernes     {Natur    und     Urgeschichte    des 
Menschen),  speaks  of  the  appearance  of  man  at  least 
a  quarter  to  half  a  million  years  ago.     If  the  Eoliths 
are   admitted,  the   period   must   be   greatly   prolonged, 
while  the  Ape-man  of  Java  is  generally  admitted  to  go 
back  to  the  Tertiary  period. 

The  reader  will  conclude  that  we  have  by  no  means 
as  yet  the  material  required  to  settle  the  question  of 
chronology,  and  will  dispense  me  from  pausing  at  the 
various  phases  of  evolution  to  say  "  whence  these  things 
were."  It  is  enough  to  say  with  Sir  John  Evans,  one  of 
the   most   cautious   authorities :    "  The  mind  is  almost 


16  Prehistoric  Man 

lost  in  amazement  at  the  vista  of  antiquity  displayed." 
If  we  can  succeed  in  restoring  the  outline  of  some  of 
the  strange  races  of  men  who  roamed  our  planet  with 
strange  animal  companions  in  the  dark  night  of  pre- 
history, we  may  leave  the  closer  determination  to  a 
more  developed  science.  To  that  task  I  now  apply 
myself. 


The  Earliest  Traces  of  Man  17 


CHAPTER    II 

THE     EARLIEST    TRACES     OF     MAN 

The  very  fact  that  man  has  ascended  gradually  from 
an  animal  level  implies  that  any  very  early  traces  of  him 
which  we  may  find  will  lend  themselves  to  almost 
endless  controversy.  If  we  find  remains  of  the  being 
who  is  slowly  assuming  human  shape,  it  will  be  quite 
natural  that  many  will  hesitate  whether  to  describe  the 
transitional  form  as  animal  or  human.  If  we  find 
specimens  of  man's  most  primitive  efforts  to  give  an  edge 
to  a  flint,  the  marks  will  differ  little  from  the  chipping  to 
which  flints  are  subjected  in  the  river-bed  or  on  the 
shore  of  the  ocean.  It  is  not  surprising,  therefore,  that 
the  claims  for  the  most  primitive  traces  of  man  are  much 
disputed ;  and,  since  this  little  manual  is  not  controversial 
but  educative  in  aim,  these  disputed  traces  must  be 
simply  described,  and  the  marshalling  of  authorities,  for 
or  against  their  human  character,  briefly  indicated. 

The  most  important  of  these  controversies  centres 
about  some  remains  that  were  found  in  the  island  of 
•  Java  in  1891  and  1892.  Dr.  Eugene  Dubois  was 
investigating  some  fossiliferous  deposits  at  Trinil  (Java), 
and  he  discovered  four  bones  of  singular  interest — a 
skull-cap,  a  thigh-bone,  and  two  teeth.  The  bones  were 
not  found  together  nor  at  the  same  time,  but  all  belong 
to  the  same  deposit,  and  were  only  separated  by  a  dozen 

B 


18  Prehistoric  Man 

yards.  Dr.  Dubois  produced  them  at  the  International 
Zoological  Congress  at  Leyden  in  1894,  and  claimed  that 
he  had  discovered  the  "missing  link"  in  the  chain  of 
man's  evolution.  The  skull  proved  to  have  a  cranial 
capacity  of  about  900  or  950  cubic  centimetres.  This 
capacity  is  just  midway  between  that  of  the  highest 
ape  (600)  and  that  of  early  Paleolithic  or  low  savage 
man  (about  1200).  The  eye-ridges  were  prominent  and 
powerful,  the  forehead  very  low,  and  the  whole  appear- 
ance singularly  brutal.  The  teeth  are  not  less  removed 
from  both  the  human  and  ape  type.  The  thigh-bone, 
though  nearer  to  the  human  type,  is  conspicuously 
curved  and  twice  as  heavy  as  an  ordinary  human  femur. 
There  was  a  long  and  heated  discussion  at  the  Leyden 
Congress  on  the  character  of  the  being  to  whom  the 
bones  belonged,  and  the  issue  was  instructive.  Of 
twelve  experts  present,  three  declared  them  to  be  the 
remains  of  an  abnormal  man,  three  regarded  them  as 
bones  of  an  unknown  and  advanced  man-like  ape,  and 
six  said  that  they  were  of  the  intermediate  type  which 
Dr.  Dubois  claimed.  The  minority  which  claimed  them 
to  show  a  degenerate  human  type  was  led  by  Professor 
Virchow,  whose  prejudice  on  the  subject  of  evolution 
was  well  known.  In  the  previous  year  he  had,  at  the 
Vienna  Anthropological  Congress,  gone  so  far  as  to 
declare  that  "man  might  just  as  well  be  said  to  have 
descended  from  the  elephant  as  from  the  ape."  His 
objection — that  the  bones  showed  pathological  degenera- 
tion— has  not  been  sustained,  and  the  latest  German 
writer  on  the  subject,  Dr.  Hoernes,  declares  it  to  be 
absolutely  groundless. 


Thb  Earliest  Traces  of  Man  19 

By  1899,  Professor  Klaatsch  tells  us,  only  three  out  of 
eighteen  authorities  ascribed  the  skull  to  an  ape,  nine  to 
a  man,  and  six  to  an  intermediate  being.  As  Dr.  Hoernes 
observes,  the  conclusion  is  clear.  A  being  which  experts 
could  class  as  either  ape  or  man  or  intermediate  between 
the  two  is  obviously  intermediate,  and  it  is  now  the 
usual  practice  to  speak  of  it  as  the  erect  Ape-man 
{Pithecanthropus  erectus)  of  Java.  It  seems  to  be  one  of 
those  semi-human,  semi-ape  types  which  the  theory  of 
evolution  places  before  the  definitely  human  type.  It 
does  not  follow,  however,  that  we  may  insert  it  in  the 
line  of  man's  ancestry.  It  may  represent  some  collateral 
branch  of  the  Primate  family,  which  was  extinguished 
before  it  reached  a  human  level.  Its  great  interest  is 
that  it  exhibits  a  type  high  above  the  level  of  the  most 
advanced  ape,  a  type  in  which  we  certainly  find  the 
beginning  of  human  characters.  In  our  chief  museums 
(Natural  History  Museum,  Royal  College  of  Surgeons, 
etc.)  the  cast  of  the  skull  is  definitely  ranged  as  early 
human. 

The  question  whether  the  skull-cap,  femur,  and  teeth 
(which  were  found  at  intervals  of  several  months)  be- 
longed to  the  same  individual  is  not  very  important,  since 
the  skull  alone  suffices  for  our  purpose,  but  the  close 
association  of  the  bones  at  the  same  horizon,  and  the 
peculiarly  transitional  character  of  all  of  them,  dispose 
us  to  think  this.  More  important  is  the  question 
whether  the  bones  really  belong  to  the  Pliocene  period, 
to  which  they  are  referred.  If  they  do,  a  very  great 
antiquity  would  be  demanded.  Some  hold,  however, 
that  the  bones  do  not  belong  originally  to  the   bed   in 


20  Prehistoric  Man 

which  they  were  found,  and  a  recent  geological  investi- 
gator has  even  claimed  that  the  bed  itself  is  not  Miocene, 
but  mid-Quaternary.  Final  decision  must  be  reserved, 
though  the  very  low  organisation  seems  to  point  to  the 
earlier  date.* 

There  is  a  further  point  to  be  considered  before  one 
can  venture  to  build  any  large  structure  of  speculation 
on  so  slender  a  basis.  From  the  organisation  of  a  single 
individual  we  must  not  hastily  conclude  that  we  have  the 
typical  organisation  of  the  species  to  which  it  belonged. 
Especially  in  brain-capacity  individuals  of  the  same  small 
community  vary  immensely,  and  we  must  study  a  number 
of  skulls  to  get  the  average  of  the  group.  No  doubt  the 
variation  is  much  greater  to-day  than  it  was  in  primitive 
times,  but  the  point  must  not  be  neglected.  In  the  case 
of  Paleolithic  man  we  have  a  number  of  skulls,  from 
different  parts  of  Europe,  and  from  them  we  gather  the 
typical  Paleolithic  form.  We  must  remember  that  we 
have  as  yet  only  one  skull  of  this  very  primitive  species, 
and  refrain  from  large  generalisations.  I  may  add, 
however,  that  the  early  Paleolithic  skulls  vary  much  less 
than  skulls  do  in  a  modern  community. 

With  these  reserves  we  may  attempt  to  picture  to 
ourselves  the  kind  of  being  who  roamed  over  the  islands 
or  the  "lost  continent"  of  the  Indian  Ocean  at  that 
remote  date.  From  the  thigh-bone  we  gather  that  the 
Pithecanthropus  was  a  few  inches  over  five  feet  high, 
and  stood  erect,  though  retaining  a  strong  curve  from  a 

*  An  expedition  was  sent  out  from  Germany  to  Trinil  in 
1906,  and  vast  material  has  been  collected.  The  results  of  this 
search  may  modify  earlier  conclusions. 


The  Earliest  Traces  of  Man  21 

quadruped  ancestor.  From  the  skull  and  teeth  we 
clearly  gather  a  face  intermediate  between  that  of  the 
chimpanzee  and  that  of  the  native  Australian — a  heavy, 
bestial  face,  with  great  arches  over  the  eyes  and 
retreating  forehead,  with  bulging  teeth  and  massive  jaws 
and  receding  chin.  Powerful  in  muscle,  stunted  in 
brain,  probably  (from  reasons  we  shall  see  later)  covered 
with  a  thick  coat  of  hair,  the  Pithecanthropus  is  just  the 
type  of  creature  that  the  doctrine  of  evolution  would 
place  at  the  end  of  the  Tertiary  period.  The  earliest 
ape-like  creatures,  the  Lemurs,  appear  in  the  Eocene. 
The  man-like  apes  appear  in  the  Miocene.  Pithecan- 
thropus, if  assigned  (as  is  usual)  to  the  late  Pliocene, 
comes  midway  between  the  highest  fossil  apes  and 
Paleolithic  man  (in  the  Pleistocene);  and  this  is 
precisely  its  position  in  organisation. 

Prom  any  larger  or  more  speculative  conclusions   I 

must    entirely   refrain    here.       In    my   earlier   manual 

(Evolution,  ch.  vi.)   I   have  summarised  the  most  recent 

speculations  on  the  evolution  of  man,  and  suggested  the 

causes  of  his  upward  advance.     Where  that  important 

evolution   took    place   we   do   not   know.      Dr.    Keane 

confidently  looks  to  the  neighbourhood  of  the   Indian 

Ocean  (where,  as  we  know,  much  land  has  disappeared 

under  the  waves)  for  this  cradle  of  humanity,  but  the 

evidence  is  slender.     In  view  of  the  distribution  of  the 

man-like   apes   in    Africa   and    Asia   (and    formerly    in 

Europe)  it  is  not  unnatural,  and  the  finding  of  the  Java 

bones  may  be  held  to  confirm  it.     But  this  supposition 

is  much  complicated  by  the  next  claim  of  early  human 

traces,  which  we  have  now  to  consider. 


22  Prehistoric  Man 

We  turn  now  from  human  remains  to  the  relics  of 
human  workmanship,  and  we  shall  meet  all  the  obscurity 
and  controversy  which  I  explained  to  be  inseparable  from 
the  earliest  artificial  touches.  I  will  first  run  briefly 
over  certain  disputed  flints,  which  are  claimed  to  be  the 
work  of  Tertiary  man,  and  then  deal  with  the  more 
weighty  of  the  English  "  Eoliths." 

In  the  preceding  chapter  we  saw  that  a  French  priest, 
the  Abbe  Bourgeois,  candidly  brought  before  the  Inter- 
national Congress  in  1867  certain  flints  which  he  believed 
to  bear  traces  of  human  workmanship.  They  exhibited 
a  network  of  fine  cracks  which  could  only  be  due  to 
heat,  and  it  was  suggested  that  they  had  been  put  into 
fire  to  split  them — a  procedure  that  we  find  among 
certain  savages  to-day.  In  addition,  many  of  them  had 
a  series  of  chips  along  the  edge,  which  were  claimed  to 
show  design  and  purpose.  Apart  from  the  crude 
character  of  the  flints,  however,  the  fact  that  they  were 
found  in  Miocene  beds  made  the  majority  decline  to 
recognise  them.  They  were  found  in  the  district  of 
Thenay,  about  sixteen  feet  below  the  present  surface, 
and  the  period  to  which  they  were  referred  was  one  so 
remote  that  palms  then  flourished  in  Northern  France 
and  crocodiles  swam  in  its  rivers. 

The  controversy  which  ensued  is  no  nearer  a  close 
to-day  than  it  was  forty  years  ago.  Eminent  authorities 
like  Sergi  and  Mortillet  accept  them  as  the  work  of 
Tertiary  man:  other  authorities  entirely  reject  them: 
the  majority  of  experts  maintain  a  reserve  of  opinion. 
The  situation  is  typical  for  the  whole  of  the  claims  of 
Tertiary  traces  of  man,  and  I  need  not  do  more  than 


The  Earliest  Traces  of  Man  23 

enumerate  the  disputed  "  finds."  Certain  flints  were 
found  in  Tertiary  strata  at  Otta  in  Portugal.  Mortillet 
and  others  regard  them  as  genuine  worked  flints  of  the 
upper  Miocene,  but  the  great  majority  of  the  authorities 
are  against  them.  The  flints  of  Puy-Courny  are  in  the 
same  position  (admitted  by  Keane,  Rutot,  Klaatsch, 
Mortillet,  and  others),  and  there  is  the  same  division  of 
authorities  in  regard  to  all  the  alleged  finds  of  "Eoliths," 
or  pre-Paleolithic  implements,  in  Africa,  India,  and  all 
parts  of  Europe. 

The  difficulty  is  natural.  On  the  one  hand,  we  can 
point  to  tribes  like  the  extinct  Tasmanians  whieh  gave 
no  more  finish  to  their  stone  implements  at  times  than 
is  seen  in  many  of  the  Eoliths;  on  the  other  hand,  many 
authorities  believe  that  the  accidental  chipping  of  flints 
in  nature  leads  to  forms  quite  analagous  to  those  of  the 
Eoliths.  It  is  precisely  the  situation  we  would  expect. 
Tertiary  man — and  most  of  the  authorities  agree  that 
the  human  stage  was  probably  reached  in  the  later 
Tertiary — would  have  so  feeble  an  intelligence  that  his 
handiwork  would  hardly  be  demonstrable. 

I  pass  entirely  over  certain  scratched  or  cut  bones 
from  Tertiary  deposits,  and  the  skulls  and  other  remains 
once  referred  to  the  Tertiary  in  California  (the  Calaveras 
skull,  etc.)  and  now  claimed  in  South  America.  Few 
are  willing  to  consider  these  claims  to-day.  Other 
Eoliths,  found  at  Boncelles,  are  actually  referred  by 
their  supporters  to  the  Oligocene — a  period,  on  a 
moderate  estimate,  four  or  five  million  years  ago — and 
are  said  to  be  already  fashioned  into  knives,  borers,  etc. 
The  Eoliths  of  Aurillac  are  referred  to  the  Miocene, 


24  Prehistoric  Man 

All  these  and  the  whole  Eolithic  scheme  of  M.  Rutot 
(the  most  ardent  Eolithist,  and  the  leading  Belgian 
authority)  are  generally  regarded  with  reserve,  or 
rejected  outright.* 

The  English  Eoliths  call  for  somewhat  fuller  notice, 
and  have  a  much  greater  weight  of  authority  behind 
them.  The  classical  examples  of  these  flints,  for  which 
human  use  is  claimed,  are  those  found  by  Mr.  Benjamin 
Harrison  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Ightham,  Kent.  In 
the  patches  of  gravel  which  are  scattered  over  the 
surface  of  the  North  Downs  a  number  of  flints  were 
discovered  which  seemed  to  have  been  used,  and  in  some 
cases  deliberately  adapted,  for  the  purposes  of  a  very 
primitive  race  of  men.  The  safe  and  ordinary  marks  of 
human  workmanship,  which  we  shall  see  later,  were 
lacking,  but  this  defect  would  be  quite  in  harmony  with 
the  reputed  age  of  the  implements.  Some  were  believed 
to  show  signs  of  wear,  others  had  the  appearance  of 
scrapers  or  borers,  and  others  again  had  a  roughly 
chipped  edge.  Similar  implements  have  since  been 
discovered  in  large  numbers  near  Salisbury,  in  Dorset- 
shire and  Essex,  and  in  Belgium,  France,  Germany, 
North  and  South  Africa,  and  India. 

*  See,  for  full  particulars,  Mortillet's  Prehistoriquc  (p.  25- 
126),  and  Hoernes'  Natur  und  U  rgeschichte  des  Menschen. 
A  good  discussion  is  found  in  an  article  by  Professor  Sollas 
(who  admits  many  of  Rutot's  Eoliths)  in  Science  Progress, 
January,  1909.  Another  excellent  summary  is  found  in  Dr. 
Windle's  Remains  of  the  Prehistoric  Age  in  England,  1904. 
For  a  recent  attack  on  the  English  Eoliths,  by  Mr.Worthington 
Smith,  see  Man,  1903,  p.  26.  Fuller  treatment  is  found  in 
G.  G.  MacCurdy's  The  Eolithic  Problem,  1906. 


The  Earliest  Traces  of  Man  25 

It  would  be  impossible  here  to  discuss  these  stones  in 
a  manner  sufficient  to  enable  the  inexpert  reader  to  form 
a  judgment  on  them.  The  highest  expert  opinion  in  the 
world  is  still  greatly  divided  on  the  subject  of  their 
intelligent  use.  The  earliest  convert  to  Mr.  Harrison's 
view  of  the  Kent  Eoliths  was  Sir  Joseph  Prestwich,  a 
very  cautious  authority,  who  had  hitherto  been  reluctant 
to  admit  the  larger  claims  for  the  antiquity  of  man.  On 
many  of  the  specimens  in  the  large  collection  at  the 
Natural  History  Museum  at  South  Kensington  the 
visitor  will  notice  a  small  paper  disk.  This  was  put  on 
them  by  Sir  J.  Prestwich  to  denote  the  flints  which,  in 
his  opinion,  were  genuine  Eoliths.  He  further  deter- 
mined that  they  had  been  rolled  to  their  present  bed  on 
the  plateau  of  the  Downs  from  a  high  hill  (2,500  feet) 
which  has  since  been  entirely  removed  by  denudation ; 
and  he  thus  assigned  them  an  incalculable  antiquity. 
That  they  have  been  thus  rolled  in  the  bed  of  a  river 
which  no  longer  exists  is  agreed — they  bear  obvious 
traces  of  the  process — but  it  is  still  very  keenly  disputed 
whether  we  may  attribute  them  to  human  beings. 

While  Dr.  Keane,  Lord  Avebury,  Sir  E.  Ray 
Lankester,  and  other  high  authorities  accept  the  Eoliths, 
equally  good  authorities  like  Mr.  Worthington  Smith 
emphatically  reject  them.  Sir  John  Evans  was  their 
principal  opponent  during  his  life  ;  though  it  is  curious  to 
find  him  saying  in  1902  (as  quoted  by  Mr.  Newton  in 
Man)  that  Mr.  Harrison's  "numerous  and  important 
discoveries"  had  "done  much  to  revolutionise  our  ideas 
as  to  the  age  and  character  of  the  drift-deposits  capping 
the  chalk  downs  in  West  Kent."     One  may  say  that  the 


26  Prehistoric  Man 

Eolithic  position  gains  ground  in  England,  and  is 
favoured  by  the  majority  of  the  authorities.  On 
December  1st,  1908,  Professor  A.  Schwartz  and  Sir 
Hugh  R.  Beevor  read  a  paper  on  the  subject  at  the 
Literary  and  Philosophical  Society  of  Manchester,  and 
claimed  to  demonstrate  the  human  purposiveness  of  the 
Eoliths.  Since  Dr.  Blackmore  began  his  investigations 
in  the  district  of  Salisbury  the  position  has  been  much 
strengthened.  We  now  find  a  conservative  writer  like 
Dr.  Windle  not  only  accepting  the  Eoliths,  but  adding 
that  "  the  question  of  the  Pliocene  date  of  the  Eoliths 
must  be  regarded  as  settled."*  On  the  Continent 
Mortillet,  Rutot,  Klaatsch,  Schweinfurth  and  others 
accept,  but  a  large  number  of  the  chief  authorities  in 
France  and  Germany  refuse  to  recognise  any  Tertiary 
traces  of  man,  while  generally  allowing  that  man  was 
probably  evolved  in  the  Tertiary  period. 

As  far  as  the  Tertiary  period  is  concerned,  therefore, 
we  must  say  that  no  undisputed  trace  of  man  is 
discoverable,  but  that  a  very  large  number  of  the 
leading  authorities  (Keane,  Lord  Avebury,  Sir  E.  Ray 
Lankester,  Rutot,  Mortillet,  Klaatsch,  Sergi,  etc.) 
admit  such  traces  in  England,  Prance,  Belgium,  Spain, 
and  Italy,  or  some  one  of  these  countries.  The  question 
must  remain  in  reserve.  In  view,  however,  of  the  high 
authority  now  quotable  in  support  of  Tertiary  man,  it 
will  not  be  without  interest  to  discuss  his  relation  to 
the  general  development  of  the  earth. 

Europe  enjoyed  a  semi-tropical  climate  in  the  Miocene 

*  Remains  of  the  Prehistoric  Age  in  England, 
p.  7  (1904). 


The   Earliest  Traces  of  Man  27 

period,  to  which  the  earliest  and  most  disputed  traces  of 
man  are  referred.     Palms  flourished  as  far  north  as  the 
region  which  is  now  the  north  of  France  and  the  south 
of  Britain  ;  though  at  that  time  the  British  Isles  were 
not  separated  from,  hut  formed  part  of,  the  Continent. 
Large  man-like  apes  lived  as  far  west  and  north  as  Prance, 
and  it  is  not  impossible  that  the  precursor  of  man  was 
amongst  them.      As  his  intelligence  developed — possibly 
through  his  having  been  forced  to  leave  the  trees,  adopt 
the  erect  posture,  and  use  his  fore-limbs  as  hands — he 
would  (on  the  analogy  of  the  ape)  use  weapons  of  wood, 
torn  from  the   trees,  or  throw   stones.     Of  such  early 
wooden  weapons  no  trace  could  possibly  be  preserved,  on 
account  of  the  corruptible  material. 

The  next  step  would  be  to  select  stones  which  were 
naturally  adapted  for  his  primitive  needs,  and  from  such 
selection  to  the  rough  chipping  of  the  stones,  to  give  an 
edge  or  a  point,  would  be  a  natural  transition.  Theo- 
retically, we  should  be  disposed  to  place  this  step  in 
the  Pliocene  period,  and  it  is  precisely  to  this  period 
that  the  bones  of  the  Ape-man  of  Java  and  the  Eoliths 
are  generally  referred.  From  the  rough  nature  of  the 
workmanship  we  cannot  demonstrate  the  presence  of 
intelligent  fashioning,  but  the  Tasmanians  and  the 
Andaman  Islanders  were  found  in  the  nineteenth 
century  to  work  the  stones  they  used  in  just  the  same 
crude  way. 

If  we  accept  these  traces  as  genuine,  therefore,  we  have 
a  lowly  type  of  human  being,  midway  in  brain  and  frame 
between  the  Chimpanzee  and  the  Australian  savage,  wan- 
dering on  foot  into  what  is  now  the  island  of  Britain,  and 


28  Prehistoric  Man 

living,  in  a  genial  climate,  along  the  banks  of  its  broad 
marshy  rivers,  with  the  hippopotamus,  rhinocerous,  tiger 
and  hyena  for  neighbours.  Prom  some  cause  which  is 
not  yet  established,  the  climate  was  growing  colder. 
Northern  Europe  was  preparing  for  the  vast  mantle  of 
ice  which  would  presently  cover  it.  The  palms  and  the 
tropical  animals  were  retreating  southward,  and  man,  not 
yet  intelligent  enough  to  adapt  himself  to  the  colder  climate, 
may  have  retreated  with  them.  As  the  Miocene  period 
ends,  the  glacial  ice-streams  begin  to  descend  from  the 
more  northern  or  the  higher  mountains,  and  in  the  first 
part  of  the  Quaternary  period  nearly  the  whole  north  of 
Europe  (down  to  the  Thames  and  Danube)  and  of  North 
America  was  covered  with  a  great  ice-sheet. 

Here,  however,  we  come  to  the  Old  Stone  Age  proper, 
and  must  describe  the  earliest  undisputed  remains  of 
Paleolithic  man.  Eolithic  or  Tertiary  man  awaits  the 
final  decision  of  science.  Fresh  material  is  being  con- 
stantly accumulated,  and  a  few  more  years  may  see  the 
question  settled.  Important  discoveries  are  announced 
from  Scotland,  where  even  Paleolithic  man  had  not 
hitherto  been  admitted ;  and  I  have  myself  examined  a 
remarkable  collection  of  crude  Paleoliths  from  the 
upper  valley  of  the  Lea  (where,  in  spite  of  the 
assertion  of  6ome  writers,  implements  are  very  abund- 
ant) which  may  turn  out  to  have  very  great  interest  in 
linking  the  Eolithic  with  the  Paleolithic.  It  is  enough 
here  to  describe  the  position  of  the  controversy  and 
the  theoretical  course  of  man's  evolution.  Now  we 
reach  surer  ground  as  we  turn  to  consider  the  relics 
of  early  Paleolithic  man. 


The  Beginning  of  the  Old  Stone  Age         29 


CHAPTER  III 
the  beginning  op  the  old  stonb  age 

The  student  of  evolution  may  feel  some  impatience 
that  we  skip  from  one  definite  period  to  another, 
instead  of  following  a  completely  graduated  series  of 
human  stages  from  the  first  appearance  of  man  to 
the  dawn  of  history.  Many  authorities  believe  that 
we  can  already  trace  this  perfect  sequence  in  the 
stone  implements  of  early  man,  and  that  we  can 
pursue  the  slow  growth  of  art  through  the  Eolithic, 
Paleolithic,  Mesolithic,  and  Neolithic  periods.  We 
have  not  only  the  strong  claims  already  mentioned  on 
behalf  of  England  and  Belgium,  but  Schweinfurth 
believes  he  has  traced  the  sequence  in  Egypt,  and 
Mr.  J.  P.  Johnson  (The  Stone  Implements  of  South 
Africa,  1907)  for  South  Africa.  No  one  questions 
that  the  evolution  is  continuous,  but,  not  only  are  the 
earlier  stages  open  to  disputes  as  to  identity  from  the 
very  nature  of  the  case,  but  the  great  changes  of 
climate,  which  took  place  in  the  northern  hemisphere, 
would  cause  such  migrations  that  we  have  little  hope 
of  finding  a  perfect  succession  in  any  one  locality. 

On  the  other  hand,  when  we  bring  together  different 
strata  of  culture  from  different  localities,  it  is  difficult 
to  determine  their  chronological  relations  with  confi- 
dence.    As    time    goes    on    we    find    all    the    different 


/ 


30  Prehistoric  Man 

stages  existing  simultaneously  in  different  regions.  In 
the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century  every  singL- 
stage  of  human  culture — from  Eolithic  to  advanced 
civilisation — was  discoverable  at  some  point  or  other 
on  the  earth's  surface.  The  tracing  of  the  perfect 
sequence  is,  therefore,  a  task  of  the  future.  For  the 
present  we  may  be  content  to  sum  up  our  knowledge 
of  the  early  Paleolithic  race,  or  races,  of  men. 

What  we  do  know  is  that  in  the  earlier  half  of  the 
Quaternary  period,  vastly  earlier  than  the  first  dawn  of 
history    in    Egypt    10,000    years    ago,    human    beings 

!  wandered  over  the  greater  part  of  Europe,  and  possibly 
Southern  Asia  and  Northern  Africa.  They  were  below 
the  cultural  level  of  the  Australian  native.  Their 
beetling  eye-ridges,  retreating  foreheads,  heavy  chinless 
jaws,  and  protruding  teeth,  are  quite  in  accord 
with  their  stone  implements,  and  betray  a  very  low 
level  of  mental  culture.  They  had  no  agriculture,  no 
bows  and  arrows,  no  tamed  cattle,  no  pottery,  no 
woven  texture,  and  probably — as  we  shall  see — no 
clothing  and  no  articulate  speech.  In  the  enormously 
long  period  of  the  Old  Stone  Age  (which  is  generally 
computed  at  something  over  100,000  years),  the  only 
progress  they  made  consisted  in  preparing  their  stone 
weapons  and  tools  with  a  finer  process  of  chipping ; 
this,  at  least,  was  the  only  progress  made  during  the 
greater  part  of  the  period.  Prom  the  earliest  re- 
mains found,  these  men  are  given  the  name  of  the 
Neanderthal  race. 

The   general   physical  and    mental  character  of    this 
race  is  now  firmly  established.     I  have  already  referred 


Thb  Beginning  op  thb  Old  Stonb  Agb         31 

to  the  finding  of  a  prehistoric  skeleton  at  Neanderthal, 
near  Diisseldorf,  in  1856.  When  the  rescued  bones 
came  to  be  examined,  it  was  found  that  they  belonged 
to  an  extraordinarily  primitive  type  of  man.  All 
controversy  as  to  the  normal  human  character  is  now 
over,  and  the  skeleton  is  admitted  to  be  that  of  a 
man  of  the  early  part  of  the  Old  Stone  Age.  The 
thigh-bones  were  very  heavy  and  much  curved,  and  they 
and  the  other  bones  indicated  very  powerful  muscles 
and  a  very  moderate  height.  The  man  stood  about 
5  feet  3  inches,  his  legs  slightly  curved,  and  his  limbs 
and  chest  of  great  power.  His  large  teeth  bulged 
outward,  and  there  was  little  chin.  Two  thick  bony 
ridges  stood  out  far  over  his  eyes,  and  his  forehead 
was  extremely  low.  The  skull  might  contain  1,220 
cubic  centimetres  of  brain  matter,  which  is  much  the 
same  as  that  of  an  Australian  native.  Some  writers 
have  represented  that  this  is  a  fair  capacity  for  a  man 
of  5  feet  3  inches,  and  greater  than  that  of  many 
Veddahs  and  Andamanese.  The  latter,  however,  have 
very  slight  frames  to  control,  unlike  the  Neanderthal 
man.  As  Huxley  said,  the  skull  was  "the  most  brutal 
of  all  human  skulls"  at  the  time  it  was   discovered. 

Since  the  middle  of  the  last  century,  however,  we 
have  discovered  other  remains  of  early  Paleolithic  man, 
and  we  know  that  the  Neanderthal  individual  is  a  fair 
specimen  of  the  race  to  which  he  belonged.  The  next 
most  important  discovery  was  at  Spy,  in  Belgium. 
In  1886  two  Belgian  students  explored  a  grotto  at 
Spy,  and,  in  the  terrace  before  it,  two  or  three  feet 
below    the     actual     surface,     they     found     two    fairly 


32  Prehistoric  Man 

complete  skeletons  of  the  Neanderthal  type.  One  skull 
is  slightly  better  than  the  other  (which  some  authorities 
attribute  to  difference  of  age),  but  both  have  the  heavy 
frontal  ridges,  and  the  low,  retreating  forehead,  the 
powerful  chinless  jaw,  and  the  bulging  teeth  of  the 
Diisseldorf  skeleton.  The  men  were  evidently  adults, 
but  the  mental  capacity  was  low,  and  the  great  mass  of 
the  brain  was  thrown  behind.  The  thigh-bones  were 
thick  and  curved,  and  they  and  the  other  bones  indi- 
cated very  powerful  muscles.  We  had  the  same 
suggestion  of  a  squat,  powerful,  stunted  savage,  with 
brain  and  facial  features  going  back  toward  those  of 
the  ape. 

Every  fresh  discovery  has  confirmed  this  suggestion. 
In    Belgium,  again,  at    La  Naulette,  a   lower  jaw  was 
found   which    has    been    accepted   as  early    Paleolithic. 
At   Malarnaud   and   Arcy  in    France   other  jaws   were 
discovered,   and   the   latter,  at   least,   is   recognised   as 
early    Paleolithic ;   the    former    is    generally   admitted. 
In     England     a     skeleton     found    at     Tilbury    (at    a 
depth  of  32  feet)  during  the   excavation  for   the  docks 
in    1882,    a    fragment    of    a    skull    found    at    Bury  St. 
Edmunds  in  1884,  and  a  skull  and  other  bones  found  at 
Galley  Hill  (Kent)  in  1888,  have  been  attributed  to  the 
same  race.     It   is  more  probable,  however,  that  these 
remains  belonged  to  the  later  Old  Stone  Age,  and  we 
may  postpone  them  until  the  next  chapter.     The  same 
must    be    said    of    finds    at    Predmost    and    Podbaba 
(Moravia),  Briix  (Bohemia),  Schipka  (Moravia),  Taubach 
(Germany),   Eguisheim   (Alsace),   Engis  (Belgium),  and 
Gibraltar.     They  seem  to  belong  to  the  Paleolithic  race, 
but  not  to  its  earlier  section. 


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The  Beginning  op  the  Old  Stone  Age         33 

On  the  other  hand  important  discoveries  have  been 
made  in  recent  years,  which  fully  confirm  the  type 
suggested  by  the  relics  of  Neanderthal,  Spy,  Arcy,  and 
La  Naulette.  The  first  of  these  occurred  at  Krapina, 
in  Croatia,  where  nearly  500  human  teeth  and  bones 
(or  parts  of  bones)  were  found,  in  1899,  in  association 
with  animals  (arctic  and  cave-bear,  woolly  rhinocerous, 
beaver,  etc.)  of  an  interglacial  character.  Patient 
reconstruction  yielded  the  remains  of  at  least  two 
individuals  of  the  Neanderthal  type,  the  jaw-characters 
approaching  even  nearer  than  those  of  Spy  to  the  most 
primitive  standard. 

More  recently  finds  of  great  importance  have  been 
made  in  France  and  Germany,  and  the  character  of 
early  Paleolithic  man  may  be  regarded  as  fixed.  In 
1906  a  Swiss  explorer,  Hauser,  found  a  nearly  complete 
skeleton  at  La  Vezere,  in  the  Dordogne.  The  district 
had  yielded  vast  numbers  of  Paleolithic  relics,  as  we 
shall  see,  but  at  a  lower  depth  (30  feet  below  the 
stratum  previously  worked)  in  a  grotto  that  had  been 
cut  off  by  recent  buildings,  the  bones  of  a  youth  were 
discovered,  with  early  Paleolithic  implements.  Such 
finds  are  now  very  carefully  controlled,  and  the  skele- 
ton was  at  once  shown  to  be  early  Paleolithic.  Dr. 
Reinhardt  estimated  that  it  was  some  400,000  years 
at  least  since,  in  the  penultimate  interglacial  period, 
this  young  specimen  of  early  humanity  had  met  his 
premature  death.*  Professor  Klaatsch  regarded  the 
remains  as   the  most   primitive  yet   discovered — earlier 

*Naturwiss.     Wochenschrift,  May  20th,  1909. 

c 


34  Prehistoric  M\n 

than  the  Neanderthal  and  Spy  remains — and  this  was 
generally  accepted.  The  familiar  early  Paleolithic 
characters — heavy  frontal  ridges,  retreating  forehead, 
bulging  teeth,  and  retreating  chin — were  very  strongly 
developed. 

In  the  following  year  (1907),  however,  another 
human  relic  was  found  which  disputes  the  priority  of 
the  Vezere  man.  This  was  a  lower  human  jaw  dis- 
covered at  Mauer,  near  Heidelberg,  in  October,  at  a 
depth  of  80  feet  below  the  actual  surface.  Dr.  Otto 
Schoetensach,*  to  whom  the  examination  of  the  jaw  was 
entrusted,  claims  that  it  is  by  far  the  oldest  yet  known, 
and  many  authorities  agree  with  him.  The  bones  I  have 
already  described  belong  probably  to  the  middle  of  the 
Pleistocene  period.  The  Heidelberg  jaw  belongs  to  the 
earliest  part  of  the  Pleistocene,  if  not  (as  some  think) 
to  the  last  part  of  the  Pliocene.  This  conclusion  is 
reached  on  a  geological  examination  of  the  deposit  in 
which  it  was  found,  and  it  is  quite  borne  out  by  the 
appearance  of  the  relic  itself.  While  the  teeth,  which 
are  preserved  in  it,  stamp  it  as  distinctly  human,  the 
massiveness  of  the  jaw  and  complete  absence  of  chin 
bring  it  closer  to  the  ape-type  than  any  other.  It  is 
midway  in  profile  between  the  jaw  of  the  gorilla  and 
that  of  an  Australian  native,  and  much  more  primitive 
than  the  Spy  and  Krapina  jaws.  There  is  very  strong 
reason  to  regard  this  jaw  as  intermediate  in  type, 
between  the  Ape-man  of  Java  and  the  Neanderthal 
man,  if  not  entirely  on  a  level  with  the  former.     Mean- 

*Der  Unterkiefcr  des  Homo  Heidelbergensis,  1908. 


The  Beginning  of  the  Old  Stone  Agb         35 

time  we  may  confidently  class  it  as  very  early 
Paleolithic  at  least. 

The  most  recent  find  of  importance  was  made  by 
the  Abb£s  J.  and  A.  Bouysonnie  at  Chapelle-aux-Saints, 
in  the  Correze,  in  1908.  It  was  the  skeleton  of  a  man 
who  had  stood  about  5  feet  2  inches  in  height,  lying  on 
its  back,  the  head  supported  by  stones,  at  a  great  depth 
in  a  cave.  The  skull  was  extremely  thick,  and  had  the 
Neanderthal  features  (eye-ridges,  low  forehead,  absence 
of  chin)  very  strongly  developed.  The  distinguished 
French  authority,  M.  Boule,  claims  that  it  is  the 
earliest  Paleolithic  skeleton  yet  discovered,  and  nearer 
to  the  Ape-man  than  any  of  the  others. 

Into  the  dispute  as  to  the  chronological  priority  of 
these  recent  finds  it  is  impossible  to  enter  here,  but 
we  may  pause  for  a  moment  to  sum  up  these  very 
valuable  discoveries  of  early  human  remains.  As  the 
matter  now  stands,  we  have  undisputed  remains  of  a 
dozen  of  the  earliest  representatives  of  the  distinctly 
human  family.  Midway,  or  little  less  than  midway, 
between  the  highest  ape  and  the  lowest  living  human, 
we  have  the  remains  found  at  Java,  at  Mauer,  at 
Vezere,  and  at  Chapelle-aux-Saints.  Coming  close 
after  these  we  have  the  remains  found  at  Neanderthal, 
Spy  (two  skeletons),  Krapina  (several  skeletons),  La 
Naulette,  Arcy,  and  Malarnaud.  These  chance  dis- 
coveries show  us  that  a  type  of  humanity  much  lower 
than  any  we  know  to-day  was  spread  over  a  large 
part  of  the  earth's  surface  in  the  earlier  part  of  the 
Pleistocene  period.  That  the  later  type  is  evolved  from 
the  earlier,  or  that  either   type  was  ancestral   to  any 


36  Prehistoric  Man 

modern  race,  cannot  be  affirmed  with  confidence.  The 
whole  of  the  remains  may  belong  to  races,  or  off-shoots 
of  the  developing  human  family,  which  were  later 
extinguished.  In  any  case  they  give  us  a  most  valu- 
able illustration  of  a  phase  (or  phases)  through  which 
humanity  passed  in  its  slow  upward  evolution. 

The  Java  remains  record  a  stage  in  which  the 
pithecoid  features  are  so  gradually  approaching  the 
human  that  the  authorities  hesitate  whether  to  pro- 
nounce them  simian  or  human,  and  rightly  decide  to 
speak  of  them  as  belonging  to  an  Ape-man.  It  is  the 
next  known  stage  after  the  large  man-like  apes  of  the 
Miocene,  a  stage  probably  belonging  to  the  late 
Pliocene.  The  next  stage  is  seen  in  the  Mauer,  Vezere, 
and  Chapelle-aux-Saints  remains.  Here  the  pithecoid 
features  have  definitely  shaded  into  the  human,  but 
the  beetling  ridges  over  the  eyes,  the  low  forehead, 
the  chinless  jaw,  and  protruding  teeth,  still  recall  the 
gorilla  or  the  chimpanzee.*  In  the  Neanderthal-Spy 
race  these  characters  continue  to  be  modified,  and  we 
approach  the  type  of  the  living  Australian  native. 

But  we  cannot  fully  understand  the  relationship 
of  these  early  types  until  we  have  glanced  at  the 
classification  of  Paleolithic  implements.  The  discovery 
of  the  actual  remains  of  early  man  has  a  far  greater 
interest  than  the  examination  of  chipped  flints,  but  the 

*It  is  not,  of  course,  suggested  that  the  anthropoid  ape  is  in 
the  line  of  man's  ancestry.  The  stock  which  was  to  become 
human  probably  diverged  very  early  from  the  main  simian 
body.  It  would,  however,  have  to  pass  through  an  anthropoid 
stage. 


The  Beginning  of  the  Old  Stone  Age  37 

scantiness  of  the  former  still  forces  us  to  rely  on 
the  very  abundant  supply  of  the  latter  for  the  more 
definite  arrangement  of  our  material. 

Here  again,  however,  we  must  as  yet  beware  of 
taking  up  too  dogmatic  a  position.  We  have  searched 
only  a  small  part  of  the  earth's  surface  for  the  relics 
of  early  man,  and,  great  as  is  the  mass  of  material 
collected,  we  must  leave  room  for  discoveries  that 
may  modify  our  schemes.  In  a  general  way  we  may 
say  that  the  stone  implements — generally  flint  imple- 
ments, but  often  of  other  hard  stone,  such  as  quartz, 
chert,  greenstone,  etc. — of  the  Paleolithic  age  begin 
with  roughly  worked  stones,  to  be  held  in  the  hand,  and 
pass  on  to  edged  scrapers,  flint  knives,  and  ultimately 
chisels,  borers,  and  lance-heads.  Some  claim  that 
scrapers  and  a  rough  type  of  knife  are  found  from 
the  first. 

In  England  it  has  been  customary  to  distinguish  the 
earlier  Paleolithic  relics  as  belonging  to  "river-drift" 
man,  and  the  later  as  of  "cave"  man.  The  same 
distinction  was  broadly  maintained  in  Germany,  and 
we  shall  see  that  it  has  a  general  justification.  Others 
distinguish  the  cave-bear,  mammoth,  and  reindeer 
periods,  but  distinction  on  grounds  of  animal  popula- 
tion is  precarious.  More  recently  a  French  scheme  of 
classification,  due  originally  to  M.  Mortillet,  has  been 
generally  adopted  in  its  main  lines.  On  this  scheme 
the  various  stages  of  the  Paleolithic,  which  follow  upon 
the  (disputed)  Eolithic,  are  known  as  (beginning  with 
the  older)  the  Chellean,  Acheulean,  Mousterian, 
Solutrean,  and  Magdalenian.      Most  authorities,    how- 


38  Prehistoric  Man 

ever,  omit  the  Acheulean,  and  some  substitute  the 
«•  Papalian"  (or  "  Hippic"  =  horse-period)  and  "Cervidian" 
(reindeer-period)  for  the  Solutrean  and  Magdalenian. 

The  earliest  or  Chelles-Acheulean  stage,  which  takes 
its  name  from  the  French  districts  (Chelles  and  St. 
Acheul)  where  its  implements  were  found  in  greatest 
abundance,  is  chiefly  characterised  by  what  English 
writers  used  to  call  a  "celt,"  and  the  French  more 
expressively  term  a  coup  de  poing.  This  is  a  flint 
varying  from  two  or  three  to  (especially  later)  eight  or 
ten  inches  in  length.  The  unworked  back  of  the  thick 
stone  was  apparently  grasped  in  the  hand,  and  the  front 
part  was  chipped  to  an  edge,  generally  tapering  to  a 
point  at  the  top.  This  tool  or  weapon  (or  both)  is  one 
of  the  most  characteristic  and  persistent  of  Paleolithic 
types.  We  recognise  the  workmanship,  even  in  the 
earlier  and  rougher  specimens,  by  the  obvious  design  of 
the  chipping  along  the  edge,  and  also  by  the  peculiar 
hollow  ("  bulb  of  percussion  ")  made  where  a  piece  has 
been  intentionally  chipped  off  by  the  hand  of  man. 
In  the  course  of  the  Paleolithic  period  the  chipping 
becomes  finer  and  the  tool  more  effective,  though  it  still 
seems  to  have  been  held  in  the  hand.*  We  cannot, 
however,  venture  to  tell  the  age  of  an  implement  from 
the  roughness  of  the  workmanship  alone,  as  lower 
groups  of  men  continued  to  co-exist  with  the  more 
advanced.     We  have  implements  of  the  early  Paleolithic 

*  A  claim  has  been  made  for  the  discovery  of  a  hafted 
Paleolithic  implement  at  Ipswich  in  recent  years.  Apart  from 
this  disputable  claim  we  have  no  trace  of  halting  in  the 
Paleolithic. 


The  Beginning  of  the  Old  Ston^  Agb         39 

that  some  tribes  do  not  equal  to-day.  To  assign  a  very 
early  age  to  a  rough  Paleolith,  we  must  know  that  it 
was  found  in  early  deposits  (and  had  not  slipped 
subsequently  into  them).  We  have  some  test,  too,  in 
the  incrustations  on  many  very  early  implements,  and 
the  deep  ochreous  colour  of  their  surfaces.  The  expert 
alone  can  apply  these  tests  with  confidence. 

Recent  authorities  (such  as  Dr.  Obermaler,  who  has 
devoted  a  special  study  to  the  point)  believe  that  other 
types  of  implements  are  found  in  the  older  strata 
together  with  the  "knuckle-duster."  I  have  myself 
found  a  worked  flint  in  the  gravel  of  the  Lea  valley 
which  seemed  from  position  and  colour  to  belong  to  the 
older  Paleolithic.  It  was  clearly  a  hammer-stone,  or  a 
"  celt "  that  had  been  used  extensively  as  a  hammer,  and 
implied  the  use  of  a  punch  for  chipping  implements. 
The  remarkable  collection  of  early  Paleoliths  made  by 
my  friend  Mr.  St.  John  Parker  at  Ware  includes  a  great 
diversity  of  types.  Nevertheless,  the  coup  de  poing  is 
the  dominant  type  of  Paleolithic  implement,  and  is 
found  over  the  four  continents  (in  Algeria,  Egypt,  India, 
and — it  is  claimed — South  Africa  and  South  America, 
as  well  as  England,  Prance,  Belgium,  Germany,  Austria, 
Italy  and  Spain).  The  gravel-quarry  of  St.  Acheul  alone 
has  yielded  some  20,000  specimens — a  significant  indica- 
tion of  the  length  of  the  period,  since  we  must  assume  a 
sparse  population  for  Prance  in  those  remote  ages. 

The  other  chief  types  of  implements  are  generally 
regarded  as  later  inventions,  as  the  primitive  life  of 
Paleolithic  man  developed.  The  scraper,  a  thinner 
stone  chipped  at  one  edge  (or  all  round)  seems  to  have 


40  Prehistoric  Man 

been  used  chiefly  to  remove  the  fat,  etc.,  from  animal 
skins  in  order  to  make  garments.  We  shall  see  that 
there  are  grounds  for  thinking  that  man  was  usually 
nude  until  the  later  part  of  the  Paleolithic,  but  in  colder 
regions  he  may  have  come  earlier  to  the  invention  of 
clothing.  Most  authorities  do  not  admit  the  scraper 
in  the  earlier  deposits.  Mr.  Worthington  Smith  {Man 
the  Primeval  Savage),  who  has  explored  the  Paleolithic 
floor  of  England  at  Caddington  (near  Dunstable)  and  in 
certain  parts  of  London,  as  well  as  discovered  much 
earlier  and  simpler  implements,  only  found  the  scraper 
at  the  later  level.  Mortillet  makes  the  same  claim  for 
Prance.  In  the  present  state  of  the  science  it  may  be 
said  that  the  earliest  race  we  have  studied  chiefly  used 
the  coup  de  poing  and  indeterminate  implements,  while 
the  Neanderthal  (or  later)  race  introduced  the  scraper, 
borer,  and  knife  (a  long  flake  of  flint,  struck  off  the  core 
at  one  blow).  The  javelin  and  lance-heads  come  later 
still,  and  the  arrow  is  not  found  certainly  until  the 
Neolithic,  or  the  transition  period.* 

From  this  accumulation  of  evidence  we  can  restore  at 
least  the  general  outline  of  the  story  of  early  Paleolithic 
man.  The  question  of  his  relation  to  the  great  Ice  Age 
is  still  unsettled,  but  the  majority  of  the  authorities 
now  think  that  he  wandered  into  Europe  during  an 
inter-glacial  period — the  period  of  temperate  climate 
between  two  extensions  of  the  vast  northern  ice-sheet. 

*  The  first  trace  of  the  arrow  is  a  drawing  on  the  wall  of  the 
Grotte  des  Forges,  discovered  in  1908.  It  represents  a  bison 
with  an  arrow  sticking  in  it.  These  drawings  belong  to  the 
very  last  phase  of  the  Paleolithic. 


The  Beginning  of  THe  Old  Stone  Age  41 

Geologists  now  agree  that,  at  some  undeterminable  but 
very  remote  date,  the  climate  of  Northern  Europe  fell 
so  low  that  the  snow  condensed  into  glaciers  on  the 
mountains,  and  the  glaciers  blended  on  the  plains  into  a 
vast  sheet  of  ice,  which  spread  over  half  of  Europe  and 
North  America.  Whether  this  was  due  to  astronomical 
causes,  or  to  the  uplifting  of  the  land,  or  to  the  reduction 
of  the  carbon  dioxide  in  the  atmosphere,  or  to  changes 
in  the  ocean  currents,  or  to  a  canopy  of  cosmic  dust,  is 
still  disputed.  Nor  are  we  any  nearer  agreement  as  to 
the  time  when  the  glacial  period  set  in.  Estimates  vary 
from  800,000  to  100,000  years  ago.  Certain  it  is  only 
that  the  sub-tropical  climate  of  Britain  and  France  in 
the  Miocene  (even  in  Greenland  the  temperature  must 
have  been  30  degrees  higher  than  it  is  to-day)  slowly 
cooled  during  the  Pliocene,  and  became  Arctic  in  the 
early  Pleistocene. 

German  and  English  glacial  geologists  generally  agree 
that  the  ice-sheet  proceeded  from,  and  receded  toward, 
the  north  (or  the  summits  of  higher  European  moun- 
tains) several  distinct  times,  with  intervening  periods  of 
temperate  climate.  The  evidence  we  have  as  yet  points 
to  one  of  these  interglacial  periods  as  the  epoch  when 
the  Neanderthal  race  reached  the  west  of  Europe. 
Whether  it  was  evolved  in  Europe,  or  came  from  Asia 
or  Africa,  is  too  thorny  a  problem  for  us  to  discuss  here 
At  that  time  Africa  was  directly  connected  with  Europe 
across  the  Mediterranean,  and  Great  Britain  was  part 
of  the  continent  of  Europe.  On  foot — no  boats  are 
known  until  a  much  later  period — the  squat,  powerful, 
low-browed     humans    wandered     over     the    available 


42  Prehistoric  Man 

c  mtinent,  as  far  west  as  Cornwall.  Recent  discoveries 
in  Scotland  are  said  to  show  that  they  even  penetrated 
so  far  north. 

The  geological  indications  point  to  a  genial  climate, 
with  broad  marshy  rivers,  and  an  animal  population 
totally  different  from  that  of  to-day.  The  German 
Ocean  and  English  Channel  of  to-day  were  then  broad 
valleys,  and  great  rivers  took  out  their  rainfall  to  points 
far  away  from  the  actual  shores.  The  Thames  then 
meandered  lazily  over  a  broad  swampy  bed,  several 
miles  wide;  the  valley  on  which  London  is  built  has 
been  hollowed  out  by  the  river  since  man  chipped  his 
rough  tools  in  its  upper  gravel-beds.  The  hippopotamus 
then  floated  in  our  streams,  and  extinct  types  of 
rhinoceroses  and  elephants  and  tigers  roamed  over  the 
land.  The  Irish  elk,  the  hyena,  the  bear,  and  bison, 
and  other  creatures,  have  left  their  bones  in  the  soil 
which  Paleolithic  man  trod. 

In  that  genial  climate  man  would  not  unnaturally  live 
on  the  gravel-beds  by  the  broad  rivers,  where  stone 
abounded  for  his  weapons  and  fish  could  be  obtained, 
so  that  "  river-drift  man  "  is  not  an  inappropriate  name. 
He  would  dispute  the  warmer  caves  and  rock-shelters 
with  the  hyena  and  huge  cave-bear  only  when  a  fresh 
advancing  ice-sheet  lowered  the  climate ;  or  not  habitu- 
ally until  then.  We  shall  find,  too,  that  when  art 
develops  tens  of  thousands  of  years  later,  though  still 
within  the  Paleolithic  period,  the  primitive  artist  always 
draws  his  fellows  nude,  with  marks  indicating  a  pro- 
nounced coat  of  hair.  This,  with  the  analogy  of  the 
lowest  tribes  we  find  in  a  genial  climate,  and  the  apparent 


The  Beginning  of  the  Old  Stone  Age  43 

absence  of  scrapers,  seems  to  indicate  that  he  wore  no 
clothing  in  that  early  time. 

Whether  he  lived  in  isolated  family  groups  or  in 
social  aggregations  cannot  be  decided  on  the  direct 
evidence.  Many  writers  hastily  assume  that  social  life 
had  already  begun,  because  we  find  what  we  may  call 
the  floor  of  Paleolithic  workshops  for  the  manufacture 
of  implements — areas  strewn  with  debris,  flint  cores,  or 
broken  implements.  There  is,  however,  no  evidence 
that  these  belong  to  the  earliest  Paleolithic.  The 
"workshops"  discovered  by  Mr.  Worthington  Smith, 
for  instance,  are  later  than  the  crude,  deeply-stained 
flints  which  he  assigns  to  an  earlier  period.  The 
indisputably  earliest  stones  are  always  scattered,  and 
many  writers  assume  that  men  wandered  merely  in 
family  groups  until  near  the  end  of  the  Paleolithic 
period.  That  the  family  group  itself  was  already 
formed  we  have  very  strong  reason  to  believe.  It  is 
found  among  the  higher  apes,  which  live  generally  in 
isolated  family  groups,  and  among  the  lowest  races 
(Veddahs,  Tasmanians,  Yahgans,  etc.),  who  also  have 
little  social  life  and  no  tribal  organisation. 

The  point  can  hardly  be  settled  on  direct  evidence, 
but  a  very  curious  light  is  thrown  on  it  by  an  exam- 
ination of  early  Paleolithic  remains.  Articulate  speech 
has  greatly  developed  the  chief  muscle  under  the 
human  tongue,  and  caused  a  proportionate  extension 
of  the  bony  tubercle  in  the  lower  jaw  to  which  this 
hypoglossal  muscle  is  attached.  In  the  highest  apes 
this  tubercle  is  little  developed :  in  civilised  man  it  is 
very  prominent.     In  the  early  Paleolithic  jaws,  several 


44  Prehistoric  Man 

of  which  I  have  examined,  this  bony  prominence  is  so 
very  feebly  developed  that  Dr.  Munro  and  other 
authorities  conclude  that  early  Paleolithic  man  had  no 
articulate  speech.  Speech  was  so  crude,  and  had  to 
be  so  liberally  supported  with  gesture,  among  the 
Tasmanians  that  one  must  not  press  this  conclusion 
too  strongly.  It  is,  however,  in  accord  with  the  few 
indications  we  have  that  men  did  not  yet  live  in 
social  groups. 

Of  the  use  of  fire,  again,  there  is  no  evidence  in 
the  earliest  Paleolithic  period.  On  the  recognised 
"Paleolithic  floor"  of  Britain  and  France  we  some- 
times find  charred  remains  and  primitive  "  fire-places," 
but,  as  I  have  explained,  this  floor  does  not  represent 
the  earliest  inhabitants.  The  question  must  be  left 
open.  The  Tasmanians  could  not  produce  fire,  nor 
would  primitive  man  be  in  much  need  of  it  as  long  as 
the  climate  remained  warm. 

Whether  this  early  race  of  men  buried  their  dead 
or  not — we  certainly  do  not  find  any  other  trace  of 
religious  belief — is  another  of  the  points  which  must  be 
left  unsettled.  The  remains  which  had  been  discovered 
until  the  last  few  years  seemed  to  indicate  death  and 
entombment  from  accident,  but  some  of  the  more 
recent  discoveries  are  said  to  point  to  burial.  The 
claim  is  somewhat  precarious.  The  V^zere  skeleton 
seemed  rather  to  suggest  death  during  sleep,  and  the 
Chapelle-aux-Saints  skeleton  may  quite  accidentally 
have  a  heap  of  stones  under  the  head.  In  both  cases, 
however,  it  is  claimed  that  the  remains  of  funeral 
feasts  are  found,  and  the  point  needs  further 
elucidation. 


The  Beginning  op  the  Old  Stonb  Age         45 

In  a  work  of  this  character  it  would  be  improper 
to  attempt  any  further  suggestion  of  the  habits  of 
early  Paleolithic  man.  Those  who  are  acquainted 
with  the  conditions  of  the  preservation  of  animal 
remains  will  see  that  what  has  already  been  accom- 
plished by  prehistoric  science  is  very  considerable. 
Even  the  hardest  bones  will  dissolve  into  their 
elements  in  so  vast  a  period  of  time,  unless  they 
happen  to  be  laid  in  quite  exceptional  circumstances. 
This  lucky  accident  occurred  in  so  many  cases  that 
already,  though  the  search  has  explored  only  a  minute 
fraction  of  the  surface  of  Europe,  we  have  the  full 
skeleton  of  early  Paleolithic  man,  and  a  dozen  different 
relics  to  show  that  we  possess  the  normal  type.  From 
the  bony  frame  modern  science  can  with  much 
confidence  restore  the  living  form,  and  we  have  seen 
what  kind  of  man  it  was  who  dropped  his  flint 
implements  over  the  wide  area  between  Cornwall  and 
India,  if  not  on  to  China  and  Japan,  and  between 
Central  Germany  and  Algeria.  We  have  now  to  see 
the  evolution  of  this  stunted  race  during  the  long  course 
of  the  Old  Stone  Age. 


46  Prehistoric  Man 


CHAPTER    IV 

PROGRESS     DURING     THE     OLD     STONE     AGE 

Nothing,  perhaps,  impresses  us  more  strongly  with 
the  lowly  character  of  the  men  of  the  Old  Stone  Age 
than  the  extraordinary  slowness  of  their  advance  during 
that  enormous  period.  We  have  made  immeasurably 
more  progress  in  one  hundred  years — in  the  century 
of  science — than  primitive  man  made  in  a  hundred 
thousand  years.  There  is  not  even  the  most  question- 
able trace  of  the  hafting  or  polishing  of  weapons,  the 
use  of  the  bow  and  arrow,  or  the  making  of  clothing, 
until  the  very  close  of  the  Paleolithic  period  ;  and  there 
is  no  trace  of  pottery,  agriculture,  weaving,  or  hut- 
building,  until  the  Neolithic.  The  whole  advance  made 
until  near  the  close  of  the  period  is  measured  by  a  slow 
improvement  in  the  chipping  and  fashioning  of  the  stone 
implements. 

Though  we  cannot  say  with  any  confidence  what 
period  of  time  is  represented  by  the  Old  Stone  Age, 
there  is  a  general  agreement  that  it  was  two  or  three 
times  as  long  as  the  New  Stone  Age.  When  we  find 
rich  masses  of  Chellean  implements  40  feet  below  the 
actual  surface  of  France  (at  Chelles),  and  human 
remains  80  feet  below  the  present  surface  of  Germany 
(at  Mauer) :  when  we  reflect  that  the  valley  of  the 
Thames,  some  four  miles  in  width,  has  been  excavated 


Progress  during  the  Old  Stone  Age  47 

by  the  river  since  primitive  man  first  wandered  along 
its  banks,  and  the  German  Ocean  and  English  Channel 
have  since  then  severed  England  from  the  Continent : 
we  feel  that  the  period  must  be  expressed  in  hundreds 
of  thousands,  rather  than  tens  of  thousands,  of  years. 
The  most  ingenious  efforts  have  been  made  to  give  an 
approximate  figure  of  the  duration  of  the  period,  but 
they  rest  on  astronomical  or  geological  theories  which 
have  not  won  general  acceptance. 

The  lowest  estimate  (Walcott)  for  the  Quaternary 
period  is  270,000  years,  and  we  saw  that  the  most 
primitive  human  remains  go  back  to  the  early  Pleisto- 
cene, if  not  the  Pliocene.  It  is,  in  fact,  now  generally 
agreed,  even  by  authorities  who  reject  the  Eoliths,  that 
man  must  have  appeared  in  the  Tertiary.  If  then  we 
take  Mortillet's  250,000  years  as  the  minimum  for  the 
span  of  human  existence,  we  find  that  240,000  years  of 
this  preceded  the  first  dawn  of  civilisation,  and  probably 
200,000  belong  to  the  Old  Stone  Age.  Many  authorities 
(Dr.  Keane,  Sir  W.  Turner,  etc.)  would  multiply  these 
figures  by  three.  In  any  case,  the  far  greater  part  of 
human  existence  was  passed  in  the  dark  night  of  the 
Old  Stone  Age. 

It  would  be  useless  and  precarious  to  attempt  to 
arrange  the  remaining  Paleolithic  skulls  and  skeletons 
which  we  have  in  any  series  of  successive  Paleolithic 
races.  That  is  a  task  of  the  future,  when  the  material 
has  greatly  multiplied.  For  the  present  we  can  merely 
say  that  we  have  a  number  of  human  relics  which  are 
later  than  the  Neanderthal  race,  yet  earlier  than  the 
Neolithic,  and  that  they  show  just  such  an  advance  in 


48  Prehistoric  Man 

human  features  as  theory  demands,  and  the  stone  and 
other  implements  illustrate.  It  is,  however,  advisable 
to  explain  briefly  the  divisions  of  the  later  Paleolithic 
before  we  attempt  to  classify  its  human  remains.  The 
distinction  is  based  partly  on  climate,  partly  on  animal 
population,  and  partly  on  human  culture. 

The  Chellean  period,  in  which  the  earlier  Paleolithic 
race  lived,  was  one  of  fairly  warm  and  uniform  tempera- 
ture. Animals  belonging  to  a  genial  climate — the 
cave-bear,  hippopotamus,  hyena,  and  southern  elephant 
— flourished  in  it,  and  have  left  abundant  remains. 
Plants  such  as  the  wild  fig  and  canary-laurel  were  then 
found  in  Central  France.  In  the  Acheulean  period  the 
fauna  and  flora  indicate  a  lowering  of  climate ;  but  we 
have  followed  the  prevailing  practice  of  bracketing  the 
Chellean  and  Acheulean. 

In  the  following  period,  the  Mousterian,  the  climate 
sinks  still  lower,  the  atmosphere  is  charged  with 
moisture,  and  the  glaciers  begin  to  spread  their  icy 
sheets  over  the  plains  once  more.  This — on  the  most 
received  calculation — third  ice-sheet  had  a  much  more 
restricted  area  than  the  previous  (and  most  extended) 
sheet,  and  did  not  prevent  the  spread  of  humanity  over 
Southern  and  Central  Europe.  The  older  type  of 
elephant  is  now  displaced  by  the  woolly  elephant,  or 
mammoth:  the  hippopotamus  and  other  warm-loving 
species  retreat  south :  the  woolly  rhinocerous  replaces 
the  older  type.  At  the  same  time  the  worked  flints  show 
a  marked  improvement,  and  a  greater  variety  of  definite 
types.  The  chipping  of  the  stones  is  finer,  and  the  form 
of  the  implements  more  graceful. 


Progress  durino  the  Old  Stone  Age  49 

In  the  following,  or  Solutrean,  period  the  climate  is 
again  moderated,  apparently  owing  to  the  retreat  of  the 
glaciers.  Finely  chipped  laurel-leaf  shaped,  or  more 
pointed  and  slender  implements  abound,  and  scrapers, 
borers,  and  other  specialised  implements  are  found. 
The  flint  seems  now  to  be  flaked  by  pressure,  not  merely 
shaped  by  chipping. 

A  period  of  intense  cold  follows,  in  which  herds  of 
reindeer  browse  on  mossy  plains  as  far  south  as  the 
Pyrenees,  and  many  animals,  which  are  now  confined  to 
the  Alps  or  the  colder  zone,  spread  over  the  plains  of 
Europe.  This  is  the  important  Magdalenian  (or  "rein- 
deer") period,  in  which  the  Paleolithic  age  reaches  its 
culmination.  Lance  and  javelin  heads  of  finely  worked 
flint  are  added  to  the  previous  type,  and  harpoons, 
needles,  and  borers  of  bone  are  found  in  some  abundance. 
Men  now  live  in  large  social  groups  in  the  caverns,  make 
clothing  of  the  skins  of  animals,  and  develop  a  consider- 
able degree  of  skill  in  drawing  on  stone,  ivory,  or 
reindeer-horn.  The  Paleolithic  race  (or  races)  is  making 
a  rapid  stride  in  its  last  days,  but  some  great  change 
now  supervenes,  and  the  stage  is  cleared  for  Neolithic 
man. 

This  threefold  division  of  the  later  Paleolithic  is  by  no 
means  universally  recognised.  Some  writers  (like  Dr. 
Hoernes)  unite  the  Mousterian  with  the  Chellean :  some 
(Deniker,  Keane,  etc.)  omit  the  Solutrean:  some 
(Salmon)  regard  the  Magdalenian  as  Mesolithic :  others 
(Boule,  etc.)  unite  the  three  in  one  as  "late  Paleolithic." 
It  will,  perhaps,  be  most  helpful  to  divide  the  whole 
Paleolithic  into  three  broad  stages : — 

D 


60  Prehistoric  Man 

Chellean  =  River-drift  period 
Mousterian  (or  Solutrean)  =  Mammoth  period 


Cave 


Magdalenian  =  Reindeer  period   J  period 

In  regard  to  the  human  remains  of  the  later  Paleolithic, 
however,  we  are  quite  unable  to  trace  this  sequence  of 
stages.  They  must  remain,  for  the  present,  stages  of 
culture,  climate,  and  geological  deposit.  The  Neander- 
thal race  we  have  studied  belongs  to  the  Chellean  and, 
perhaps,  the  earlier  part  of  the  Mousterian.  The  rest  of 
the  Paleolithic  remains  are  either  definitely  Magdalenian, 
or  are  not  susceptible  of  chronological  arrangement. 

To  this  later  Paleolithic  group  belong  the  English 
remains  which  I  have  already  mentioned:  the  partial 
skeleton  found  in  the  Tilbury  excavations  in  1884,  at  a 
depth  of  32  feet,  the  fragment  of  a  human  skull  found  in 
the  same  year  near  Bury  St.  Edmunds  (at  a  depth  of 
7£  feet,  with  mammoth  remains  and  Acheulean  imple- 
ments), and  the  skull  and  bones  found  at  Galley  Hill 
(Kent)  in  1888.  Some  of  the  leading  English  writers 
have  always  disputed  the  Paleolithic  character  of  these 
remains,  but  special  authorities,  such  as  Klaatsch  and 
Schwalbe,  admit  it,  and  they  are  now  generally  followed. 
The  Gibraltar  skull  (1886)  is  in  the  same  position. 
Schwalbe,  perhaps  the  chief  expert  on  such  matters, 
declares  it  to  be  Paleolithic. 

We  then  have  a  large  group  of  remains  found  in 
various  parts  of  the  continent  during  the  nineteenth 
century.  All  these  are  open  to  dispute,  but  are  now 
generally  classed  as  late  Paleolithic.  Naturally,  as  we 
approach  the  end  of  the  Paleolithic,  the  type  shades 


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Progress  during  the  Old  Stone  Age  51 

gradually  into  the  Neolithic,  and,  if  the  geological  indica- 
tions are  uncertain,  we  must  hesitate  in  our  classification. 
There  is  not  the  gulf  between  the  two  Stone  Ages  which 
the  earlier  investigators  imagined.  Late  Paleolithic 
remains  cannot  very  confidently  be  marked  off  from 
Mesolithic  or  early  Neolithic.  Moreover,  Neolithic  man 
begins  to  bury  his  dead,  and  this  means  the  intrusion  of* 
later  bodies  into  Paleolithic  deposits. 

With  this  reserve  the  following  list  may  be  drawn  up 
of  remains  that  are  generally,  but  not  universally, 
described  as  late  Paleolithic :  the  famous  Engis  skull 
(1833),  which  some  regard  as  a  relic  of  a  Neolithic  grave : 
certain  human  fragments  found  at  Denise,  in  a  volcanic 
deposit,  in  1844:  the  fragments  of  a  skull  found  at 
Eguisheim  (Alsace)  in  1865,  in  a  Paleolithic  bed:  a 
skeleton  found  at  Clichy  in  1868,  which  is  assigned  to  a 
Neolithic  grave  by  some :  a  skull  found  at  Podbaba 
(near  Prague)  in  1883,  suspiciously  near  a  cemetery  of 
the  Metal  Age :  a  skull  found  at  Brux  (also  Bohemia)  in 
1872:  a  skull  found  at  Briinn  (Moravia)  in  1891,  which  a 
few  regard  still  as  Neolithic :  and  various  fragments  from 
Olmo,  Schipka,  and  Predmost. 

On  the  other  hand,  we  have  certain  remains  which 
have  survived  the  earlier  criticism,  and  are  now  gener- 
ally admitted  to  be  late  Paleolithic.  A  skeleton  of  this 
character  was  found  at  Laugerie  Basse  in  1872.  From 
its  appearance  the  conclusion  was  very  strongly  sug- 
gested that  the  man  had  been  accidentally  buried  by  a 
fall  of  rock.  The  body  lay  in  a  Magdalenian  deposit, 
and  the  district  abounds  in  relics  of  Magdalenian 
industry.     In  a  similar  deposit  at  Sordes,  in  the  floor  of 


52  Prehistoric  Man 

a  cave,  a  skeleton  was  found  in  the  following  year  which 
presented  the  same  appearance  of  death  and  entombment 
from  a  fall  of  rock.  In  1888  a  Magdalenian  bed  at 
Chancelade  yielded  a  third  skeleton  of  the  same  general 
type.  In  this  case  the  skull  was  abnormally  large,  but 
many  of  the  other  bones  pointed  to  an  abnormal  or 
pathological  character.  These  three  skeletons  are  the 
surest  relics  we  have  of  the  men  of  the  later  Old  Stone 
Age. 

To  conclude  with  the  various  remains  which  are 
claimed  by  one  or  more  weighty  writers  to  be  late 
Paleolithic,  I  may  mention  a  few  of  the  more  important 
instances.  The  Furfooz  skull  is  still  claimed  occasion- 
ally, but  it  is,  says  Dr.  Munro,  rejected  as  Neolithic  by 
the  most  competent  authorities.  The  Cro-Magnon 
skeleton  is  still  more  frequently  described  as  Paleolithic, 
but  is  ascribed  by  most  of  the  leading  authorities  to  a 
late  Neolithic  grave;  as  are  also  the  skeletons  found  at 
Grenelle.  Some  skeletons  found  in  the  grottoes  near 
Mentone  in  1892  are  referred  by  Boule,  Verneau,  Dr. 
Hoernes,  Professor  Sergi  and  others,  to  the  late  Paleo- 
lithic, but  are  not  admitted  by  other  authorities.  Other 
finds  at  Solutre,  Bruniquel,  and  other  parts  of  Central 
France  are  referred  by  leading  French  authorities  to 
Neolithic  graves.  Finally,  a  skeleton  was  discovered  in 
Gough's  Cavern  (near  Cheddar)  in  1904,  which  was 
declared  to  be  Magdalenian  in  character  and  deposit, 
but  the  claim  has  not  been  widely  admitted. 

We  have,  then,  so  few  undisputed  remains  of  later 
Paleolithic  man  that  we  must  refrain  from  building 
on   them,  as  we  were  able  to  do  in  the  case  of  the 


Progress  during  the  Old  Stone  Age  o3 

Neanderthal  race.  The  admitted  remains  show  a 
development  of  the  human  form  on  such  lines  as  we 
should  anticipate.  The  heavy  frontal  ridges  over  the 
eyes  are  decreasing,  the  low  retreating  forehead  rises  a 
little,  the  cranial  capacity  approaches  nearer  to  the 
modern  standard,  though  it  is  still  low.*  The  chin 
is  more  pronounced,  and  the  teeth  draw  inward.  The 
femur  is  less  curved  and  massive.  We  shall  not  be  far 
astray  if  we  put  it  that,  during  the  long  course  of  the 
Old  Stone  Age,  man  rises  from  the  level  of  the 
Tasmanian  or  the  ape-like  Central  African  to  the  level 
of  the  Eskimo.  Indeed  the  parallel  will  be  singularly 
confirmed  by  the  further  details  we  shall  see  in  regard 
to  the  last  phase  of  the  Old  Stone  Age. 

From  all  the  indications  I  have  given  we  can  form 
only  a  very  dim  picture  of  the  development  of  humanity 
during  the  Old  Stone  Age.  The  descendants  of  the 
Neanderthal  race,  or  some  other  offshoot  of  the  human 
stem,  are  still  scattered  over  Central  and  Southern 
Europe,  and  during  tens  of  thousands  of  years  we  note 
only  a  very  slow  and  slight  improvement  in  the  chipping 
of  their  hand-weapons  and  implements.  The  climate 
sinks  lower  and  lower.  The  mammoth  and  the  reindeer 
now  characterise  the  landscape.     The  floors  of  caverns 

*Sir  E.  Ray  Lankester  makes  the  singular  statement  in  his 
Kingdom  of  Man  (p.  22)  that  the  human  brain  is  of  full  weight 
or  size  from  the  start,  and  that  progress  consists  rather  in 
refinement  of  structure.  This  is  quite  contrary  to  the  facts. 
The  Java  man  has  a  cranial  capacity  of  less  than  1,000  cubic 
centimetres,  the  Neanderthal  man  of  1,250,  and  the  modern 
European  1,600  (on  the  average).  The  late  Paleolithic  skulls 
oome  between  the  two,  and  much  nearer  to  the  Neanderthal. 


54  Prehistoric  Man 

and  rock  shelters  become  thickly  strewn  with  relics  of 
man's  presence,  and  we  may  fitly  speak  of  the  cave  man, 
as  opposed  to  the  earlier  river-drift  man. 

In  the  last  phase  of  the  Old  Stone  Age  we  find  a  more 
rapid  development.  There  are  caves  in  England  (Kent's 
Cavern,  for  instance)  and  France  where  we  can  to-day 
cut  through  the  thick  floor-stratum,  and  discover  the 
various  stages  of  the  advance  of  culture  in  superimposed 
layers.  Generations  or  races  of  primitive  men,  separ- 
ated from  each  other  by  vast  periods,  have  successively 
found  shelter  in  the  caves,  and  left  the  debris  of  their 
possessions  and  food  in  the  soil.  We  are  able  to  restore 
the  sequence  of  Paleolithic  life  in  a  way  which  very 
largely  compensates  for  the  fewness  or  obscurity  of  the 
human  remains.  I  have  already  described  how  the 
chief  stone  implements  improve  in  make,  and  how  stone 
scrapers,  points,  borers,  saws,  chisels,  punches  (or  "fabri- 
cators"), and  hammer-stones,  anvils,  knives,  and  lance- 
heads  make  their  appearance.  Primitive  man  is  now 
aware  that  flint  can  be  more  finely  worked  by  adroit 
pressure,  or  by  using  a  fabricator  and  hammer-stone, 
than  by  merely  chipping  one  flint  with  another.  In  the 
Solutrean  period  bone  instruments  begin  to  appear. 
Fractured  bones  are  found  much  earlier,  but  these 
longitudinal  splits  of  horse  and  other  bones  may  merely 
indicate  Paleolithic  man's  taste  for  marrow.  In  the 
Magdalenian  period,  however,  borers,  needles,  spear  and 
harpoon-heads  (often  ingeniously  barbed)  of  bone  or  of 
reindeer  horn  are  found  in  great  abundance. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  finds  among  the  debris 
of  the  Magdalenian  floors  is  a  proof  that  late  Paleolithic 


Progress  during  the  Old  Stone  Age  55 

man  developed  a  considerable  artistic  faculty.  Only 
one  of  these  primitive  works  of  art — a  crude  drawing  of 
a  horse's  head — has  been  found  in  England  (in  a 
Derbyshire  cave),  but  in  the  caves  and  rock  shelters  of 
Southern  Prance  Paleolithic  drawings  and  sculptures 
are  found  in  la.-ge  numbers.  The  drawings  are  made  on 
bone,  ivory,  or  stone  with  a  pointed  flint  or  chisel:  the 
carvings  may  be  in  stone,  ivory,  or  reindeer.  They 
generally  represent  the  animals  which  are  contemporary 
with  Magdalenian  man — the  reindeer,  wild  horse, 
mammoth,  bison,  etc. — and  sometimes  the  men  them- 
selves. The  latter  drawings  are,  however,  too  vague  to 
be  very  instructive.  We  recognise  a  steatopygous  type 
of  woman  (Bushman  type)  in  some  of  the  statuettes,  and 
this,  in  conjunction  with  the  claim  of  negroid  skeletons 
found  near  Mentone,  may  give  us  presently  some  clue  to 
the  movements  of  population.  Other  indications  fur- 
nished by  the  human  figures  will  be  noted  presently. 

Several  attempts  have  been  made  to  trace  the 
evolution  of  this  primitive  art,  but  the  suggested  sequence 
of  periods  does  not  inspire  much  confidence.  M.  Piette 
has  put  forward  a  theory  that  man  first  carved  his  object 
entire  from  a  piece  of  stone  or  bone,  then  reproduced  it 
in  bas-relief,  and  finally  passed  to  line-drawing.  This 
suggestion  is  very  strongly  opposed  to  the  evolution  of 
the  artistic  instinct  in  the  child.  We  can  at  present  do 
no  more  than  class  the  objects  according  to  skill,  with  no 
reference  to  chronology.  The  carvings  include  some 
clever  ivory  statuettes  of  women,  and  excellent  repro- 
ductions of  reindeer  and  mammoth  in  the  ivory  or  horn 
handles  of  daggers.     The  drawings  pass  from  the  crudest 


56 


Prehistoric  Man 


attempts  to  sketch  the  head  of  a  horse  or  goat  to  such 
finished  works  as  "the  reindeer  of  Thayngen,"  a  fine 
representation — considering  the  material  and  the  stone 
implement — of  a  browsing  reindeer. 


Reindeer  Feeding 
From  Grotto  of  Thayngen,  near  Schaffhausen,  Switzerland. 


Lest  one  should  be  tempted  to  overestimate  Magda- 
lenian  man's  intelligence  from  this  artistic  efflorescence, 
it  is  well  to  note  certain  curious  limitations  betrayed  by 
the  artist.  He  has,  for  instance,  no  sense  of  perspective, 
and  cannot  group  animals.  One  excellent  drawing  on 
stone  is  still  occasionally  described  as  "the  fight  of 
reindeer."  In  reality,  it  is  merely  a  number  of  reindeer 
thrown  together  on  one  surface  from  inability  to  pre-judge 
one's  space  and  group  them.  The  Paleolithic  artist 
commonly  makes  the  same  blunder  as  the  rustic  artist  of 


Progress  during  the  Old  Stone  Age  57 

to-day,  in  failing  to  measure  out  his  space  and  finishing 
with  an  ignominious  curtailment  of  his  subject.  It  is 
noticeable,  too,  that,  when  his  animal  stands  sideways,  he 
always  draws  the  eye  in  full  (like  the  old  Egyptian  artist, 
or  the  child). 

Comparison  of  these  Magdalenian  drawings  with 
specimens  of  Eskimo  art  has  prompted  a  theory  that, 
either  the  Magdalenian  men  came  down  from  the  north 
with  the  reindeer,  or  the  Eskimo  of  to-day  are  the 
descendants  of  this  old  artistic  race,  retreating  north 
with  the  reindeer  when  a  warmer  climate  returned  to 
Europe.  Both  theories  present  great  difficulties.  The 
former  greatly  complicates  the  question  of  human 
distribution,  and  explains  nothing.  The  latter  is  hardly 
in  accord  with  the  ethnological  idea  of  the  Asiatic 
origin  of  the  Eskimo;  nor  do  we  find  the  least  trace  of 
the  passage  of  the  Magdalenian  race  across  Europe,  slow 
and  gradual  as  it  would  have  been.  The  north  of  Prance 
is  the  limit  of  the  artistic  area,  which  spreads  rather 
over  the  lower  centre  and  south,  into  Spain.  The  art  of 
the  Magdalenian  period  seems  to  have  died  out  altogether. 
I  may  add  that  the  Eskimo  drawing  which  is  given  in 
Lord  Avebury's  work,  for  the  purpose  of  comparison, 
shows  a  complexity  of  social  life  far  beyond  what  we  can 
attribute  to  late  Paleolithic  man. 

It  is,  on  the  other  hand,  quite  clear  that  by  the  end  of 
the  Paleolithic,  men  lived  in  large  social  groups.  I  have 
previously  mentioned  the  Paleolithic  "  workshop-floors  " 
which  we  unearth  in  various  parts  of  Prance  and 
England.  These  show  the  manufacture  of  flint  imple- 
ments to  have  proceeded  on  a  scale  which  implies  large 


58  Prehistoric  Man 

co-operative  bodies  of  men.  The  rough  "fire-places" 
which  are  often  discovered — one  was  traced  on  the 
Paleolithic  floor  in  Cornwall  a  few  years  ago — seem  to 
point  to  the  same  conclusion.  In  other  places  immense 
heaps  of  horses'  bones  seem  to  represent  the  kitchen 
refuse  of  communities.  But  the  most  signal  instances 
have  been  discovered  in  the  decorated  caverns  of  the 
Pyrenees  and  Southern  France.  In  1901  a  cave  was 
opened  at  Cambarolles,  and  found  to  have  109  animal 
figures,  of  about  life-size,  cut  into  its  walls.  Some  of  the 
outlines  were  filled  in  with  pigment*  At  Altamira  a 
cavern  350  yards  long  was  found,  in  1903,  to  have  its 
walls  frescoed  with  almost  life-size  drawings  of  animals. 
The  art  is  said  considerably  to  surpass  anything  known 
among  savage  tribes. 

Such  caverns — and  many  are  known — undoubtedly 
show  that  men  were  living  in  large  social  groups  at  the 
end  of  the  Old  Stone  Age,  but  we  are  unable  to  say  any- 
thing whatever  on  the  subject  of  social  organisation. 
Certain  carved  bones  were  formerly  described  in  prehis- 
toric science  as  "commanders'  batons."  They  are  now 
generally  regarded  rather  as  spear  or  arrow-straighteners. 
It  will  be  remembered  that  one  drawing  represents, 
apparently,  an  arrow  sticking  in  a  bison.  We  have  no 
positive  evidence  whatever  on  the  subject  of  tribal 
organisation,  and  we  can  only  make  precarious  inferences 

*It  is  claimed  that  a  halter  or  rope  is  depicted  on  one  of  the 
horse-figures,  and  that  we  must  accordingly  credit  Paleolithic 
man  with  the  taming  of  animals.  We  should  hesitate  to  do 
this  On  some  of  the  human  figures  there  are  lines  which  just 
as  plainly  look  like  tails,  but  we  cannot  accept  them  as  such. 


Progress  during  the  Old  Stone  Age  59 

from  the  tribes  (Eskimo,  Red  Indians)  which  seem  to  be 
at  about  the  same  level  of  culture.  No  doubt,  both 
social  organisation  and  articulate  speech  would  develop 
speedily  after  the  beginning  of  communal  life.  On  neither 
point  have  we  direct  evidence. 

In  regard  to  clothing  and  ornamentation  we  have 
much  instructive  material.  One  of  the  human  drawings 
of  the  period,  which  represents  a  man  chasing  an  aurochs, 
gives  a  series  of  lines  round  the  body  of  the  man  corres- 
ponding exactly  to  the  lines  which  indicate  the  animal's 
thick  coat  of  hair.  Most  of  the  other  human  figures  give 
the  same  indication  in  some  degree.  It  is  impossible 
to  examine  these  and  resist  the  conclusion  that  the 
human  body  still  had  a  conspicuous  coat  of  hair  at  the 
end  of  the  Old  Stone  Age.  This  would  imply  a  recent 
invention,  and  perhaps  scanty  use,  of  clothing.  In  point 
of  fact,  all  these  human  representations  depict  the  body 
nude.* 

Clothing  was,  however,  clearly  worn  during  the  reindeer 
period.  Scores  of  remarkably  fine  bone  needles  are 
found  in  the  soil  of  the  French  caves.  From  the  imple- 
ments we  gather  that  a  thin  fragment  was  struck 
longitudinally  off  a  bone,  roughly  rounded  on  a  stone 
with  serrate  edge,  and  then  smoothed  with  a  stone 
polisher.  The  eye  was  made  with  a  fine  flint  borer. 
Some  of  the  surviving  specimens  are  certainly  wonderful 
pieces  of  work ;  but  when  M.  Mortillet  would  assure  us 

*As  certain  writers  have  seriously  enlarged  on  the  moral 
propriety  of  these  drawings,  I  must  warn  the  reader  that  the 
reproductions  of  them  in  popular  circulation  have  been 
decently  modified.    The  originals  show  no  such  delicacy. 


60  Prehistoric  Man 

(he  Prehistorique,  p.  197 )  that  no  equally  good  needles 
have  been  seen  since  "until  the  Renaissance,"  and  that 
"even  the  Romans  had  no  needles  comparable  to  those 
of  the  Magdalenian  period,"  we  respectfully  demur.  For 
thread  the  Paleolithic  tailor  would  probably  use  animal 
sinews.  His  material  would  undoubtedly  be  animal 
skins,  more  particularly  of  the  reindeer.  Even  orna- 
mented buttons  occur  among  the  debris.  One  drawing 
represents,  apparently,  a  tattooed  arm,  and  the  granite 
mortars  which  we  find  in  Magdalenian  strata,  though 
often  conceived  as  mortars  for  preparing  food,  were 
probably  used  to  prepare  the  pigment  from  marrow. 
Other  stone  vessels  rather  point  to  use  in  cooking; 
others,  again,  have  an  appendage  which  suggests  that 
they  served  as  lamps.  There  is  no  trace  of  pottery, 
weaving,  or  agriculture. 

That  fire  was  commonly  employed  before  the  end  of 
the  Old  Stone  Age  we  have  ample  evidence,  but  when 
and  how  Paleolithic  man  learned  the  important  art  of 
making  fire  is  unknown.  Some  suggest  that  the  natural 
firing  of  material  by  the  sun's  rays  or  by  volcanic  matter 
may  have  given  him  the  hint.  Unfortunately,  neither 
would  give  him  the  least  hint  how  to  make  fire.  Prom 
the  circumstance  that  most  savage  tribes  obtain  fire  by 
friction  others  conclude  that  this  must  have  been  the 
method  employed  by  primitive  man.  In  point  of  fact, 
the  earliest  fire-making  implements  we  have — from  Neo- 
lithic graves — are  flint  and  iron  pyrites,  and  it  seems  to 
me  more  likely  that  this  was  the  first  means  of  obtaining 
fire.  Implements  were  made  from  any  kind  of  hard 
stone,  and  it  is  not  unnatural  to  imagine  that  iron  ore 


Progress  dur  no  thb  Old  Stone  Agb  61 

was  occasionally  taken  to  be  a  likely  material.  We 
shall  see  later  that  this  was  commonly  done  in  Egypt. 
The  sparks  struck  off  in  chipping  with  a  flint  may  very 
well  have  led  to  a  deliberate  use  of  iron  pyrites. 

If  our  knowledge  of  middle  Paleolithic  man  is  scanty, 
therefore,  we  have  ample  compensation  in  our  knowledge 
of  late  Solutrean  and  Magdalenian  man.  It  is  futile  to 
speculate  on  whether  he  was  a  descendant  of  the 
Neanderthal-Spy  race.  Some  branch  of  the  human 
family  at  that  level  of  culture  slowly  rises  to  the  culture 
of  the  late  Paleolithic.  We  have  little  serious  reason  to 
doubt  that  it  is  an  evolution  of  the  earlier  race  we 
examined  in  the  last  chapter.  During  the  tens  of 
thousands  of  years  of  the  middle  Paleolithic,  man  makes 
singularly  little  progress.  At  last  he  begins  to  live  in 
social  groups,  and  his  slow  wit  is  more  briskly 
sharpened. 

With  his  fine  flint  and  bone  javelins  he  can  pursue 
the  wild  horse  and  the  reindeer,  if  not  attack  the 
mammoth.  From  the  hunt  he  returns  to  the  blazing 
fire  in  the  communal  cavern,  and  his  simple  human 
emotions  and  needs  forge  the  instrument  of  articulate 
speech — the  great  lever  that  has  lifted  him  so  high  above 
the  brute.  The  mother  of  his  children  has  fine  imple- 
ments with  which  to  sew  the  animals'  skins  into  warm 
clothing,  and  an  artistic  caste  springs  up  to  decorate  his 
weapons  and  his  walls,  and  beguile  the  hours  of  rest 
with  drawing  and  sculpture.  The  marks  of  his  brute 
origin — the  heavy  eye-ridges  and  bulging  jaws — slowly 
disappear.  He  is  unconsciously  ascending  toward  the 
civilisation  of  a  remote  future. 


62  Prehistoric  Man 

At  this  point  we  encounter  a  curious  confusion  in  our 
fragmentary  record  of  the  onward  march  of  humanity. 
The  men  of  the  Old  Stone  Age  rapidly  disappear  from 
the  central  stage  of  the  earth,  or  linger  only  in  the 
backward  tribes  of  Asia,  Africa,  and  America.  A  new 
race  of  men,  of  higher  type,  comes  on  the  scene.  The 
New  Stone  Age  begins. 


The  Men  of  the  New  Stone  Agb  63 


CHAPTER    V 

THE    MEN    OF    THE    NEW    STONE    AGE. 

Until  a  decade  ago  writers  on  prehistoric  man  were 
greatly  puzzled  by  what  they  called  the  hiatus  between 
the  Paleolithic  and  Neolithic  ages.  The  thread  of 
evolution  seemed  to  be  snapped.  The  men  of  the  Old 
Stone  Age  apparently  descended  into  the  earth,  in 
Europe,  and  a  new  and  higher  race  emerged  suddenly 
from  complete  obscurity.  From  the  evolutionary  point 
of  view  it  was,  of  course,  certain  that  this  Neolithic  race 
had  developed  from  some  branch  of  the  older  race  in 
some  as  yet  unexplored  region,  but  the  entire  absence 
of  transitional  forms  was  tantalising.  The  new  culture 
seemed  to  overlie  the  older  without  intermediate  stages. 

This  hiatus  has  now,  in  the  opinion  of  most  authorities, 
been  partially  filled,  and  a  Mesolithic  period  (or  Middle 
Stone  Age)  is  generally  recognised.  Two  details  may 
have  attracted  the  particular  notice  of  the  reader  in  our 
account  of  the  Magdalenian  period.  One  is  the  circum- 
stance that  the  centre  of  the  advancing  culture  lay  in  the 
extreme  south  of  France,  and  the  other  the  fact  that 
certain  human  remains  and  representations  pointed  to  an 
invasion  from  North  Africa  toward  the  end  of  the 
Paleolithic.  The  inference  that  an  important  branch  of 
the  late  Paleolithic  race  lay  still  further  south,  and  that 
this  branch  advanced  to  the  Neolithic  stage,  was  obvious 


64  Prehistoric  Man 

enough.  It  is  probable  that  the  land-bridges  still  existed 
between  Europe  and  Africa,  and  the  strip  of  Africa  north 
of  the  Sahara  has  been  increasingly  favoured  by  students 
as  the  probable  breeding-ground  of  higher  races.  Civili- 
sation itself  was  evolved  in  that  latitude,  out  in  Europe. 
Sergi  and  others  believe  that  Magdalenian  man  came 
from  North  Africa,  while  Neanderthal  man  was — as  is 
commonly  believed — developed  in  Europe. 

Most  of  our  English  authorities  believe  that  this 
island — now  severed  from  the  Continent — entirely  lost 
its  Paleolithic  population,  and  remained  without  human 
inhabitants  until  the  Neolithic  invaders  arrived.  Plague, 
submersion  of  the  land  (of  which  geologists  find  confi- 
dent traces),  destructive  climate,  and  various  other  more 
or  less  fanciful  causes,  are  suggested  for  the  extinction 
of  Paleolithic  man  in  Britain.  I  do  not  see  that  we  are 
compelled  to  admit  this  mysterious  depopulation.  There 
is,  assuredly,  no  clear  trace  of  evolutionary  transition  in 
England  from  the  Old  to  the  New  Stone  Age.  Mr. 
Worthington  Smith  describes  some  of  the  implements 
discovered  by  him  as  "mesoliths";  Mr.  Brown  contends 
that  he  has  traced  the  continuous  advance  from  Eolithic 
to  Neolithic  at  East  Dean  ;  and  claims  of  Mesolithic 
traces  are  now  advanced  from  Scotland  and  Ireland.  All 
these  are  controverted  ;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  there 
are  localities  where  the  Paleolithic  remains  are  separated 
by  a  distinct  gap  from  the  Neolithic.  Yet  the  facts — 
which  are  still  very  imperfectly  known,  it  must  be 
remembered — do  not  seem  to  be  generally  inconsistent 
with  the  plain  theory  that  the  better  equipped  Neolithic 
invaders  made  an  end  of  the  cruder  Paleolithic.     We 


The  Men  op  the  New  Stone  Age  65 

should  thus  get  rid  of  the  perplexing  supposition  that  the 
whole  human  population  was  extinguished  from  natural 
causes,  while  the  animal  population  generally  continued 
its  normal  course. 

In  any  case  we  are  driven  further  westward  and 
southward  for  the  evidence  of  continuity,  and  the  leading 
French  authorities  are  now  agreed  that  such  indications 
are  found  in  the  caves  of  Southern  France.  The  fine 
bone  and  stone  implements  found  in  the  caves  of  Mas 
d'Azil,  Reilhac,  etc.,  are  held  to  lead  onward  to  the 
Neolithic  age.*  Some  authorities  (such  as  Boyd 
Dawkins),  while  not  questioning  that  the  new  race  was 
evolved  from  the  old  in  some  part  of  the  earth,  deny 
that  the  French  explorers  have  filled  up  the  hiatus,  and 
one  must  grant  that  there  is  much  force  in  the  objection. 
If  we  had  a  distinct  picture  of  the  latest  stage  of 
Paleolithic  culture  and  the  earliest  stage  of  Neolithic,  it 
is  possible  that  the  two  would  be  fairly  bridged  by  the 
Azilian  (Mas  d'Azil)  culture.  We  have,  unfortunately, 
no  such  picture  of  the  earliest  phase  of  the  New  Stone 
Age,  and  cannot  distinctly  say  in  what  particulars  it 
advanced  at  once  on  the  culmination  of  the  Magdalenian. 
Many  of  the  pictures  of  "  Neolithic  man "  are  very 
misleading.  They  are  correctly  based  on  Neolithic 
remains,  but  it  is  quite  impossible  to  say,  and  unlikely, 
that  Neolithic  man  possessed  all  this  culture  from  the 
start.     The  question  must  remain  open. 

*  In  the  Mas  d'Azil  cave  were  also  found  certain  pebbles, 
curiously  marked  with  bands  and  dots  of  colour.  The 
significance  of  these  is  much  disputed,  and  very  obscure. 
It  is  claimed  that  some  of  the  marks  strikingly  resemble  the 
primitive  Cypriote  and  ^Egean  alphabets. 

E 


OG  Prehistoric  Man 

On  the  other  hand,  however,  the  sudden  disappearance 
of  the  very  promising  art  of  the  Magdalenian  is  a  well- 
lmo\\n  fact  which  seems  to  point  to  a  change  of  race. 
The  older  race,  hahituated  to  the  cold  and  living  largely 
on  the  reindeer,  may  have  followed  that  animal  north- 
ward as  the  climate  grew  warmer  once  more.  The 
inhabitants  of  North  Africa  may  then  have  sent  a  wave 
of  their  race  into  the  tempered  north  (the  south  of 
Europe),  and  these  invaders  might  blend  with  part  of  the 
race  of  Southern  France. 

Here  we  touch  the  thorny  problem  of  race,  and  a 
word  of  warning  must  be  given  before  we  proceed. 
Hardly  any  question  in  the  whole  of  the  science  is 
farther  from  settlement  than  this,  although  prolonged 
labour  has  been  spent  on  it.  The  fact  that  two  distinct 
types  of  skull — the  long  and  narrow,  the  short  and  broad, 
skull — were  persistently  encountered,  seemed  to  provide 
a  clue  to  racial  origin  and  blending,  and  great  efforts 
were  made  to  disentangle  the  "  dolichocephalic  "  (long- 
skulled)  and  "  brachycephalic  "  (short-skulled)  races.* 
It  cannot  be  said  that  the  craniologists  have  been 
successful.  The  leading  experts  offer  us  the  most 
contradictory  versions  of  the  origin  of  Neolithic  man, 
who  is  brought  from  nearly  every  point  of  the  compass. 
Indeed,  refinements  of  skull-structure  have  induced  some 

*  In  such  measurements  the  proportion  of  width  to  length  of 
the  skull  is  the  basis  of  classification.  The  length  of  the  skull 
is  taken  as  100.  If  the  breadth  is  in  the  proportion  of  70-75  to 
this  (it  is  rarely  less  than  70),  the  skull  is  dolichocephalic  :  if 
the  proportion  is  80-85,  the  skull  is  brachycephalic :  the  inter- 
mediate skulls  are  now  known  as  mesaticephalic. 


The  Men  of  the  New  Stone  Age  67 

experts  recently  to  split  up  even  Paleolithic  man  into 
several  species,  to  say  nothing  of  races  or  varieties. 
Other  authorities  are  now  contending  that  the  form  of 
the  skull  and  other  physical  characters  are  not  to  be 
relied  on  at  all,  as  such  features  seem  rather  to  be 
changing  effects  of  environment,  not  persistent  heredi- 
tary types.  These  writers  are  disposed  to  fall  back  on 
the  old  test  of  language.* 

In  view  of  this  obscurity  and  of  the  very  restricted 
range  of  the  present  work  we  must  take  the  question  of 
the  Neolithic  race  on  broad  lines,  as  we  have  treated  its 
predecessors.  We  saw  that  certain  remains  found  at 
Laugerie  Basse,  Chancelade,  and  Sorde  give  us  a  fairly 
confident  idea  of  late  Paleolithic  man,  who  was  probably 
on  an  intellectual  level  with  the  Eskimo  or  the  Amerind. 
Then  we  found  a  large  group  of  human  remains  which 
are  attributed  by  some  to  the  late  Paleolithic  and 
others  to  the  early  Neolithic.  One  is  tempted  to  see  in 
the  very  divergence  of  opinion  a  proof  of  the  continuity 
of  the  race  in  Europe.  Schwalbe,  for  instance,  one  of 
the  first  authorities  on  skeletal  characters,  insists  that 
the  Gibraltar  skull  is  early  Paleolithic,  and  the  Briix, 
Galley  Hill,  and  Brunn  remains  late  Paleolithic  or 
transitional.  Others  contend  that  they  are  Neolithic. 
We  may  at  least  conclude  that  the  human  remains  show 
more  continuity  than  the  stone  implements  and  artistic 
survivals,  and  do  not  betray  any  pronounced  hiatus. 

*  See,  especially,  the  presidential  address  of  Professor 
Ridgeway  to  the  Anthropological  Section  of  the  British 
Association  in  1908,  published  in  Nature,  Sept.  24th,  1908. 


63  Prehistoric  Man 

Only  one  further  group  of  remains  need  be  added  to 
those  already  described.  Very  important  finds  of  pre- 
historic skeletons  have  been  made  in  certain  grottoes  on 
the  Franco-Italian  frontier,  near  Mentone.  A  skeleton 
had  been  removed  from  there  to  Paris  in  the  early  days 
of  the  science,  and  in  1892  a  workman  brought  three 
more  skeletons  to  light.  Most  of  the  authorities  re- 
garded them  as  Neolithic  skeletons  buried  in  a  Mous- 
terian  bed,  but  there  was  much  controversy.  This  led 
to  a  diligent  search  in  all  the  grottoes  of  the  district,  and 
about  twenty  skeletons  in  all  were  discovered. 

The  oldest  and  deepest  skeletons,  found  at  a  depth  of 
25  feet  in  the  Grimaldi  cavern,  were  of  a  peculiar 
character,  and  said  to  have  negroid  features.*  Their 
flat  noses,  bulging  jaws,  and  small  stature  prompted  this 
conclusion.  Although  the  smallness  of  stature  may  be 
explained  on  the  ground  that  they  were  (admittedly)  the 
frames  of  a  youth  and  an  old  woman,  and  although  it  is 
true  that  the  skulls  were  much  flattened  and  damaged 
by  pressure,  it  is  difficult  to  think  that  the  high  authori- 
ties engaged  could  have  been  mistaken.  They  were 
clearly  much  older  than  the  other  bodies.  Possibly  we 
may  see  in  them  proof  of  a  transitory  invasion  from 
Africa.  The  Bushmen  are  known  to  have  ranged  as  far 
as  Somaliland  in  the  historical  period,  and  many  of  the 
Magdalenian  statuettes  ascribe  Bushmen  characters  to 
the  women  represented. 

The  rest  of  the  Mentone  skeletons  are  said  by  Hoernes 

*  Les  Grottes  de  Grimaldi,  by  MM.  Villeneuve,  Verneau, 
and  Boule,  1906 — the  official  report  on  the  discoveries. 


The  Men  of  the  New  Stone  Age  69 

{Natur  unci  Urgeschichte  des  Menschen,  190S)  to  be  now 
generally  recognised  as  Quaternary  (Paleolithic).  They 
are  assigned  to  the  "  Cro-Magnon  race."  In  the  earlier 
days  of  the  science  the  earliest  known  race  was  known 
as  the  "  Cannstadt  race,"  the  second  as  the  "  Cro- 
Magnon,"  and  the  third  as  that  of  Furfooz  and  Grenelle. 
This  classification  is  superseded  (the  Cannstadt  skull 
being  of  doubtful  origin),  but  the  name  Cro-Magnon  is 
still  commonly  given  to  the  race  to  which  most  of  the 
disputed  remains  I  have  enumerated  belonged.  The 
very  careful  study  that  was  made  of  the  Mentone 
remains  seems  to  show  that  the  race  does  belong  to  the 
end  of  the  Paleolithic,  or  the  transition  to  the  new 
period.  It  was  a  robust  race  of  good  stature  and  fair 
intelligence.  There  are  still  distinct  bony  ridges  over 
the  eyes,  but  the  forehead  is  rising  considerably,  the 
chin  is  well  developed,  and  the  teeth  are  less  protruding. 
The  type  is  said  to  be  not  unlike  that  of  the  modern 
Berber. 

In  view,  therefore,  of  the  fair  continuity  of  type  and 
the  comparative  disturbance  of  culture  (the  extinction  of 
Magdalenian  art  and  appearance  of  better-made  weapons) 
it  seems  reasonable  to  infer  an  invasion  of  Europe  by  a 
not  dissimilar,  but  slightly  more  advanced,  race  at  the 
beginning  of  the  Neolithic.  As  our  evidence  increases, 
the  line  between  the  two  periods  is  increasingly  blurred. 
There  is,  assuredly,  no  pottery,  no  agriculture,  no 
weaving,  and  no  house-building  during  the  Paleolithic. 
But  there  is  no  proof  that  these,  or  any  of  them,  came 
in  at  once  with  the  Neolithic  race.  On  the  other  hand, 
features   which    were   once   thought    to   be   exclusively 


70  Prehistoric  Man 

Neolithic  are  now  generally  admitted  in  the  late  Paleo- 
lithic. The  arrow,  for  instance,  is  now  commonly 
admitted  in  the  Magdalenian,  since  one  of  the  drawings 
seems  to  represent  an  arrow,  and  a  reindeer  bone,  with 
an  arrow  in  it,  is  attributed  to  the  Magdalenian.  The 
practice  of  burying  the  dead,  which  may  imply  some 
religious  belief,  is  also  commonly  admitted  now — though 
denied  by  Mortillet  and  others — in  the  Magdalenian. 
The  Mentone  skeletons  all  seem  to  have  been  interred. 

Where  the  new  race  came  from  into  the  south  of 
Europe  is  not  easily  determined.  The  slender  evidence 
we  have  disposes  us  to  look  to  North  Africa.  In  the 
Grimaldi  skeletons  we  have  indications  of  a  passage  from 
Africa,  and  we  shall  see  later  that  Neolithic  negroid 
pygmy  skeletons  have  been  found  in  Switzerland.  It 
may  be  recalled  that  civilisation  first  developed  in  the 
region  where  Asia  and  Africa  meet,  in  the  valley  of  the 
Nile  and  the  highlands  of  Southern  Syria.  If  we  may 
suppose  that  the  inhabitants  of  this  region  were  the 
more  advancing  in  culture,  even  at  the  earlier  date,  the 
various  immigrations  into  Europe  may  have  come, 
directly  or  indirectly,  from  there.  They  could  reach 
Western  Europe  either  by  way  of  North  Africa  or  by 
the  valley  of  the  Danube.  It  seems  most  in  accord  with 
the  little  evidence  we  have  to  suppose  that  the  first 
Neolithic  wave  came  through  North  Africa,  and  the 
second  by  way  of  the  Danube.  In  the  first  case  there 
may  have  been  merely  a  spread  of  culture  along  the 
strip  of  North  Africa,  and  then  a  movement  from  Algeria 
to  the  south  of  Europe.  But  the  evidence  is  very 
slender,  and  the  question  must  be  left  open. 


The  Men  of  the  New  Stone  Age  71 

Nor  are  we  in  a  better  position  to  answer  the  very 
natural  question :  At  what  date,  approximately,  did 
Europe  witness  this  appreciable  change  from  Paleolithic 
culture?  There  are  authorities  who  would  regard  20,000 
years  as  an  adequate  allowance  since  the  first  Neolithic 
invasion  of  Europe:  others  give  us  the  figure  of  50,000 
years :  Dr.  Keane  speaks  of  70,000  years :  and  Sir 
William  Turner  claims  to  have  shown  that  it  is  100,000 
years  since  Neolithic  man  invaded  Scotland  from  the 
north  of  Europe.  We  must  refrain  from  any  attempt  to 
give  even  the  roundest  figure. 

It  would  be  particularly  interesting  to  pass  in  review 
the  different  stages  of  the  Neolithic  age,  and  watch  the 
slow  unfolding  of  those  industries  and  institutions  on 
which  civilisation  gradually  rises.  This,  unfortunately, 
we  are  unable  to  do.  The  remains  of  the  entire  period 
— some  tens  of  thousands  of  years — shrink  into  a  thin 
confused  layer  on  the  earth's  surface,  and  we  cannot, 
except  on  very  broad  lines,  distinguish  its  successive 
stages.  The  archaeological  writer  is  usually  content  to 
give  us  a  picture  of  "  Neolithic  man,"  in  which  all  the 
details  known  to  the  science  are  embodied.  This, 
though  almost  inevitable,  is  misleading.  Such  a  picture 
is  bound  to  represent  as  simultaneous  many  features 
which  may  have  been  separated  from  each  other  by  the 
lapse  of  thousands  of  years  and  by  vast  stretches  of 
space. 

The  life  of  Neolithic  man  is  revealed  to  us  from  the 
contents  of  his  graves,  and  the  implements  scattered  in 
the  soil  or  in  the  shell-mounds  of  Denmark,  especially  in 
the  mud  of  certain   Swiss  lakes,  over  which   Neolithic 


72  Prehistoric  Man 

communities  once  lived  in  villages  built  on  piles.  As, 
moreover,  the  bulk  of  our  savages  maintained  the 
Neolithic  culture  until  recent  times,  a  comparison  of  the 
ancient  remains  with  their  implements  and  utensils 
enables  us  to  form  a  very  ample  idea  of  at  least  the  later 
phases  of  the  period. 

The  period  takes  its  name — Neolithic — from  the 
outstanding  fact  that  the  stone  implements  and  weapons 
now  greatly  improve  in  manufacture.  It  is  sometimes 
described  as  the  period  of  polished  stone  implements. 
As  a  broad  characterisation  this  is  very  true,  but  one 
must  understand  that  the  polishing  of  bone  was  well 
known  in  the  Magdalenian  period — witness  the  needles 
we  described— and  that  by  no  means  all  implements 
were  polished  in  the  Neolithic  period.  Dr.  Blackmore 
suggests  a  distinction  of  the  three  periods  in  the  formula 
that  the  Eolithic  implements  were  "hacked,"  the  Paleo- 
lithic "chipped,"  and  the  Neolithic  "flaked"  (by 
pressure).  This,  again,  must  be  taken  as  a  distinction  of 
outstanding,  but  not  exclusive,  characters ;  as,  of  course, 
Dr.  Blackmore  intends.  Some  Eoliths  seem  to  indicate 
chipping,  some  Paleoliths  are  hacked,  and  other  (later) 
Paleoliths  are  apparently  flaked.  The  more  our  material 
increases,  the  less  we  are  disposed  to  admit  sharp  lines 
in  the  continuous  evolution  of  the  Stone  Age. 

The  most  characteristic  implement  of  the  New  Stone 
Age  is  the  axe  or  chopper.  The  elongated  "  pick  "  (as  it 
used  wrongly  to  be  called)  of  the  later  Paleolithic  now 
becomes  a  definite  axe-head,  with  (in  the  end)  a  hole  for 
hafting.  In  the  later  Neolithic  (especially  in  Denmark) 
this  is  at  times  so  finely  finished  and  polished  that  in 


The  Men  of  the  New  Stone  Age  73 

photographs  it  looks  exactly  like  metal.  Indeed,  we 
shall  see  that  the  form  runs  on  directly  into  the  Metal 
Age.  Other  hard  stones,  besides  the  flint,  chert,  and 
quartz  of  the  Paleolithic,  are  now  largely  employed. 
We  have  finely  polished  axes,  knives,  spears,  or  arrows, 
in  greenstone,  diorite.jadeite,  obsidian,  jasper,  chalcedony, 
felstone,  serpentine,  etc.  Any  hard  stone  that  lay  on  the 
surface  was  employed. 

We  even  find  that  Neolithic  man  sank  shafts  into  the 
chalk  in  search  of  seams  of  better  flint.  A  series  of 
holes  in  Norfolk,  locally  known  as  "  Grime's  graves," 
turned  out  to  be  flint  pits  dug  by  Neolithic  man.  Others 
were  discovered  at  Cissbury.  Even  miners'  picks  of 
deer-horn  (as  well  as  stone  axes),  and  chalk  lamp-vases 
were  discovered  in  the  deserted  shafts  and  tunnels.  The 
shafts  are  from  ten  to  forty  feet  deep — the  finer  flint 
being  found  at  lower  levels — and  the  tunnels,  which 
connected  the  shafts,  sometimes  run  to  thirty  feet.  The 
tools  are  generally  of  rough  Neolithic  workmanship,  but 
we  cannot  on  that  account  conclude  that  the  excavations 
were  early.  The  roughly  chipped  implements  persisted 
alongside  with  the  new;  just  as  in  many  a  British 
blacksmith's  shop  of  the  last  generation  one  would  find 
hammers  hafted  with  a  twisted  ozier,  much  as  Neolithic 
man  probably  fitted  some  of  his  stone  hammer-heads. 
For  ceremonial  purposes  (Mexico,  Egypt,  etc.)  stone 
knives  continued  to  be  used  long  after  the  introduction 
of  metal. 

In  a  few  cases  the  perishable  wooden  handles  of 
weapons  have  survived.  Arrow-heads  are  found  thrust 
in  a  cleft  of  the  shaft,  with  binding  thongs,  and  axe-heads 


74  Prehistoric  Man 

are  sometimes  discovered  in  a  similar  cleft  in  the  handle, 
with  a  piece  of  horn  inserted  between  the  two.  In  the 
finer  axes  a  hole  was  bored  through  the  stone  with  great 
skill  and  neat  finish.  Experiment  shows  that  this  could 
be  done  by  grinding  through  with  a  twisted  stick, 
working  in  wet  sand. 

The  numerous  other  forms  of  weapons  made  by 
Neolithic  man  we  must  be  content  merely  to  mention. 
Knives  of  various  shapes  and  different  modes  of  hafting, 
spear  and  arrow-heads  of  the  most  beautiful  finish 
(especially  in  Ireland,  Scotland,  and  Denmark),  chisels, 
adzes,  crescent-knives  (or  "  sickles  " — Egypt,  Japan,  etc.), 
scrapers,  fabricators  (or  flakers),  and  borers,  are  found  in 
all  parts  of  the  world.  In  some  places  we  have  found 
the  polishers,  or  large  hollowed  stones,  on  which 
Neolithic  man  ground  his  weapons.  One  must  re- 
member that,  although  the  New  Stone  Age  is  very  much 
shorter  than  the  Old,  the  population  must  have  been 
now  considerably  greater.  Moreover,  the  use  of  stone 
by  no  means  ceases  the  moment  a  race  becomes 
acquainted  with  the  use  of  metal.  For  nearly  5,000 
years  after  its  discovery  of  bronze  Egypt  continued  to 
use  flint  implements  for  the  great  majority  of  industrial 
purposes.  Bronze  was  introduced  into  Britain  about 
1,800  years  before  the  Christian  era,  yet  stone  weapons 
figured  in  British  battles  until  the  Middle  Ages.  Even 
when  metal  was  in  general  use,  the  priesthoods  of  various 
nations  still  used  stone  for  ceremonial  purposes.  Where 
the  use  of  stone  was  entirely  discarded,  a  superstitious 
feeling  grew  up  in  regard  to  the  old  weapons  which  were 
discovered.     In   ancient    Egypt  and    Italy  arrow-heads 


The  Men  of  the  New  Stone  Age  75 

were  mounted  as  amulets.  It  is  not  many  years  since 
application  was  made  to  the  Liverpool  Museum  for 
permission  to  touch  an  ailing  child  with  one  of  the 
stone  axe-heads  in  the  collection. 

One  group  of  Neolithic  implements  has  always  aroused 
special  interest,  and  has  given  rise  to  some  fantastic 
speculation.  These  are  the  "pygmy"  implements.  Not 
only  in  many  parts  of  England  (Cornwall,  Wiltshire* 
Lancashire,  Suffolk,  Lincolnshire,  etc.)  and  the  Con- 
tinent, but  also  in  India  (especially  on  the  Vindhya 
Hills),  Palestine,  Egypt,  and  North  Africa,  finely  chipped 
implements  of  abnormally  small  size  have  been  found, 
and  to  these  the  unfortunate  name  of  "pygmies"  has 
been  given.  Ingenious  writers  at  once  associated  them 
with  a  race  resembling  the  undersized  men  of  the 
Central  African  forests,  and  contended  that  they  showed 
a  former  distribution  of  this  race  over  the  area  from 
Cornwall  to  India. 

A  solid  ground  for  this  belief  was  claimed  when, 
between  1892  and  1896,  a  Neolithic  pygmy  colony  was 
explored  at  Schweitzersbild  (Switzerland).  In  a  bed 
which  apparently  represents  the  beginning  of  the 
Neolithic  were  found  nine  normal  skeletons  and  five 
pygmies.  Dr.  Neusch  and  Professor  Kollmann,  who 
investigated  the  remains,  propounded  a  theory  that  these 
pygmies  were  representatives  of  the  earliest  inhabitants 
of  Europe,  and  that  the  taller  race  was  evolved  from  the 
shorter.  This  theory  has  not  been  widely  accepted,  nor 
is  it  consistent  with  the  early  Paleolithic  remains  we 
have  described.  Technically,  the  pygmy  is  a  member  of 
a  race  which  averages  less  than  four  feet  eleven  inches 


76  Prehistoric  Man 

in  height.  There  are  several  such  races  known,  the 
most  extreme  type  being  found  in  the  Central  African 
dwarfs.  Early  Paleolithic  man,  however,  averages,  as 
we  saw,  a  few  inches  over  five  feet,  and  no  very  early 
pygmy  remains  are  known.  It  is  more  probable  that  the 
pygmies  are  a  degeneration  from  the  early  standard.  In 
a  region,  for  instance,  where  food  was  scarce,  the 
smaller  individuals  would  have  an  advantage,  and  the 
stature  of  the  race  would  tend  to  be  lowered  by  selection. 
It  was  probably  such  agencies  that  reduced  the  vast 
reptile  world  of  former  days  to  its  present  dwarfed 
proportions. 

A  further  ingenious  conclusion  that  was  drawn  from 
the  wide  spread  of  the  "  pygmy  "  flints  may  be  noted  in 
passing.  Sir  Harry  Johnston,  the  great  authority  on 
Central  Africa,  has  observed  that  the  behaviour  of  the 
pygmies  in  contact  with  the  taller  races  is  curiously 
parallel  to  the  conduct  of  the  fairies  in  our  old  legends. 
The  supposed  spread  of  pygmies  over  Europe  at  one 
time  seemed,  therefore,  to  afford  a  substantial  basis  for 
the  legends  themselves.  If  the  pygmies  persisted 
through  the  Neolithic  period  side  by  side  with  the  taller 
races,  we  might  assume  that  the  relation  between  "the 
giants  and  the  dwarfs "  would  be  not  unlike  that 
described  in  the  legends. 

The  discovery  of  four  pygmy  skeletons  is  too  slender 
a  base  for  so  far-reaching  a  conclusion.  Like  the 
negroid  Grimaldi  skeletons,  they  may  merely  represent 
a  sporadic  invasion  from  Africa.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
"  pygmy "  implements  are  most  fallaciously  quoted  in 
support  of  either  of  the  two  theories  I  have  indicated. 


The  Men  of  the  New  Stone  Age  77 

The  smallest  race  we  know  averages  about  four  feet 
three  inches  in  height  (like  the  Schweitzersbild  skele- 
tons), and  this  is  far  too  much  for  the  miniature 
implements  we  have  found  in  various  parts  of  the  world. 
They  are  quite  commonly  less  than  half-an-inch  in 
length ;  some  go  down  to  one-sixteenth  of  an  inch.  One 
collector  found  scores  of  "pygmy"  scrapers  which 
weighed  less  than  half-an-ounce.*  If  these  are  the 
normal  implements  of  any  race,  we  should  have  to 
assume  a  series  of  races  dwindling  in  stature  down  to 
inconceivable  dimensions.  It  is  far  more  probable  that 
these  miniature  implements  were  made  for  special 
purposes  by  a  normal  race  of  men.  The  Rev.  H.  G.  O. 
Kendall  has  pointed  out  (Man,  1907,  p.  83,  and  1908, 
p.  53)  that  many  might  be  used  as  harpoon-barbs,  or 
even  hooks,  in  fishing,  and  that  they  are  found  more 
abundantly  in  fishing  stations;  though  the  latter  point 
requires  general  verification.  Others  may  have  been 
used  as  arrow-tips,  for  piercing  skins  or  shells  (which 
were  much  used  as  ornaments  in  the  Neolithic),  for 
tattooing,  or  for  purposes  of  which  we  have  no  analogy. 
It  is  better  to  describe  them  as  "  microliths."  There  is 
not  the  least  reason  to  assume  that  the  specimens  we 
find  in  different  parts  of  the  world  had  a  common  origin, 
or  belonged  to  a  common  race.  Like  needs  engender 
like  appliances;  as  we  see  in  the  different  groups  of 
horned  or  of  flying  animals. 

Apart  from  the  implements,  which  are  scattered  over 
the  surface  of  a  great  part  of  the  earth,  or  found  at  little 

*  Remains  of  the  Prehistoric  Age  in  England,  by  Dr.  B. 
Windle,  1904. 


78  Prehistoric  M  \n 

distance  below  it,  we  have  special  localities  for  obtaining 
knowledge  of  the  men  of  the  New  Stone  Age.  These 
are  the  shell-mounds,  or  "kitchen-middens,"  of  Denmark 
and  other  countries;  the  remains  of  the  pile-dwellings  of 
the  Swiss  and  neighbouring  lakes;  and  the  tombs  stone 
monuments,  and  rude  dwelling  or  storage  places  which 
abound  in  this  and  other  countries.  The  last  two,  the 
richest  and  most  important  source  of  information,  must 
be  reserved  for  the  next  chapter.  The  first  may  be 
briefly  discussed  here. 

The  inhabitants  of  Tierra  del  Fuego,  the  lowest  of 
whom  (the  Yahgans)  are  amongst  the  most  backward  we 
know  to-day,  live  chiefly  on  shell-fish,  and  the  discarded 
shells  form  large  mounds  along  their  coasts.  When 
similar  mounds,  principally  of  oyster-shells,  were  found 
along  the  coast  of  Denmark,  it  was  obvious  that  they 
were,  as  the  Danes  say,  the  kjbkkenmdddings  (kitchen 
middens)  of  a  very  early  and  primitive  race  of  inhabitants. 
Denmark  and  Scandinavia  would  be  covered  by  the  later 
and  less  extensive  ice-sheet  (or  sheets)  long  after  central 
Europe  was  habitable,  and  we  do  not  find  that  Paleo- 
lithic man  ever  penetrated  so  far  north.  When  the  last 
ice-sheet  had  disappeared,  a  branch  of  the  Neolithic  race 
occupied  the  liberated  country,  and  settled  largely  on  the 
Danish  coast — washed  by  the  Gulf-stream — where  food 
was  easily  obtained  in  abundance.  Like  the  Fuegians, 
they  lived  mainly  on  molluscs,  and  mounds  of  shells, 
often  several  hundred  yards  long,  indicate  their 
settlements  to  the  modern  students. 

The  stone  implements  which  are  occasionally  found  in 
these  refuse-heaps  are  of  a  crude  description,  but  we 


The  Men  of  the  New  Stone  Age  79 

must  not  hastily  attribute  them  to  the  earliest  period  of 
the  New  Stone  Age.  The  tribes  which  wander  out  of 
contact  with  the  rest  of  advancing  mankind  often 
degenerate — as  there  is  reason  to  suspect  in  the  case  of 
the  Fuegians  themselves — and  may  lose  much  of  the 
culture  of  their  own  ancestors.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
calculations  which  would  place  the  beginning  of  the 
shell-mound  period  at  between  3,000  and  5,000  years 
before  the  Christian  era  are  unreliable.  Neither  the 
rate  of  accumulation  of  shells,  nor  the  growth  of  forests, 
is  a  process  that  can  be  regarded  as  identical  in  remote 
periods. 

It  is  not  without  significance  that  we  find  no  trace  of 
agriculture  in  the  remains  of  the  mollusc-eaters,  and 
that  the  only  trace  we  find  of  a  domestic  animat  is  the 
dog.  Unless  we  admit  actual  degeneration,  we  have 
here  an  interesting  early  phase  of  Neolithic  life.  The 
presence  of  simple  pottery,  and  the  fact  that  some  of  the 
implements  are  actually  made  out  of  polished  weapons, 
make  it  clear  that  they  do  belong  to  the  New  Stone  Age. 
We  shall  see  that  in  other  localities  Neolithic  man 
shows  an  acquaintance  with  agriculture,  weaving,  seveial 
breeds  of  cattle,  and  much  concern  with  the  dead.  As  I 
said,  it  would  be  extremely  interesting  to  be  able  to 
follow  the  gradual  development  of  these  inventions  and 
ideas,  and  the  shell-mounds  apparently  exhibit  one  of  the 
earlier  phases.  We  have,  however,  reason  to  believe 
that  a  more  advanced  race  lived  at  the  same  time  on  the 
mainland  of  Denmark.  The  Bronze  Age  began  in 
Denmark  about  the  same  time  as  in  Britain — nearly  four 
thousand  years  ago — and  the  bronze-using  men,  if  not  a 


80  Prehistoric  Man 

fresh  invasion,  could  hardly  be  the  descendants  of  the 
lowly  kitchen-middeners. 

In  referring  to  these  shell-mounds  one  is  once  more 
reminded  of  the  fallacy  of  inferring  identity  of  race  from 
similarity  of  habits  in  different  parts  of  the  world.  Some- 
what similar  shell-heaps,  of  great  antiquity,  are  found  on 
the  shores  of  Britain — on  the  Moray  Firth  and  other 
parts  of  the  Scottish  coast,  at  Ventnor,  Hastings,  and 
other  parts  of  the  south  coast  of  England,  and  at  Cork 
Harbour  in  Ireland.  We  have  no  clue  to  the  date  or 
race  of  these  mound-makers.  In  Japan,  again,  we  have 
relics  of  the  same  character.  From  the  designs  on  some 
of  the  fragments  of  pottery  in  these  mounds  there  is  a 
tendency  to  conclude  that  the  early  mollusc-eaters  of 
Japan  were  the  ancestors  of  the  Ainus.  The  Japanese 
proper  were  in  the  bronze  stage  when  they  invaded  the 
islands,  and  as  this  invasion  is  dated  some  centuries 
before  Christ,  the  mounds  must  be  much  older,  at  least 
in  the  south. 

One  must  bear  well  in  mind  always  the  fact  that 
science,  strictly  speaking,  tells  of  stone  and  metal  phases, 
rather  than  ages.  While  the  more  fortunately  situated 
people  were  advancing  from  stage  to  stage,  the  more  iso- 
lated remained  unaffected.  To  speak  of  Stone  Ages  and  a 
Metal  Age  is  true  in  the  sense  that  there  was  a  prolonged 
period  in  which  no  branch  of  the  human  family  had  got 
beyond  the  chipping  of  stone  implements,  a  further  long 
period  in  which  no  race  had  yet  discovered  the  use  of 
metal,  and  finally,  a  period  in  which  the  more  advanced 
races  discovered  the  art  of  making  implements  of  copper, 
bronze,  and  iron.     This  is  a  chronological  arrangement 


The  Men  op  the  New  Stone  Agb  &i 

for  the  main  current  of  human  development.  But  out 
on  the  wings  of  the  human  army  there  were  always 
detached  regiments,  out  of  touch  with  the  main 
advancing  body,  who  retained  the  primitive  weapons  of 
the  earlier  days.  The  farther  these  detached  fragments 
wandered,  in  the  search  for  food  and  peace,  the  more 
surely  they  forfeited  the  stimulus  to  advance  and  the 
opportunity  to  imitate. 

We  must  not,  therefore,  attempt  to  judge  the  age  of  a 
human  relic  by  its  lowliness.  Far  away,  on  the  frontiers 
of  the  inhabited  earth  we  find  representatives  of  the 
earliest  human  wanderers.  The  Tasmanians,  driven  by 
the  oncoming  Australians  to  the  tip  of  their  continent, 
and  then  cut  off  by  the  sea :  the  Yahgans,  pressed  to  the 
extreme  south  of  America,  and  cut  off  in  turn :  the 
Bushmen,  driven  to  the  tip  of  Africa  (and  turned  upward 
again  by  Europeans) :  the  natives  who  sought  shelter  in 
the  forests  of  Central  Africa,  or  the  islands  of  the 
Indian  and  Pacific  Oceans  (Ceylon,  Malasia,  and  the 
Philippines),  represent  the  humanity  of  the  earliest 
known  days.  The  Australians,  Papuans,  and  other 
tribes  represent  a  next  phase;  and  so  on  through  the 
vast  hierarchy  of  races.  We  must  not  press  the  idea 
too  far — on  account  of  later  borrowing  of  one  tribe  from 
another — but  in  a  general  way  we  can  arrange  these 
backward  peoples  in  a  cultural  series  which  roughly 
represents  the  cultural  development  of  humanity,  and 
throws  a  useful  light  on  the  past.  This  new  method  of 
inquiry — a  combination  of  ethnography  and  prehistoric 
science — can,  however,  only  be  indicated  in  a  work  of 
the  restricted  dimensions  of  this. 


S2  Prehistoric  Man 


CHAPTER    VI 


THE     MONUMENT     BUILDERS 


If  the  shell-mounds  represent  an  earlier  phase  of  the 
New  Stone  Age — even  if  they  be  of  late  occurrence — the 
pile-villages  of  Switzerland  distinctly  represent  a  later 
phase.  Both  they  and  the  graves,  which  we  shall 
consider  presently,  exhibit  the  culmination  of  the  Stone 
Age,  and  passage  into  the  Bronze.  Both,  also,  are 
peculiarly  adapted  to  preserve  traces  of  the  remote  races 
to  whom  they  belonged.  The  Neolithic  period  is  so 
brief  from  the  geological  point  of  view  that  its  scattered 
relics  are  compressed  into  a  thin  seam,  in  which  we 
should  have  great  difficulty  in  restoring  the  chronological 
succession.  Fortunately,  we  have  these  special  centres 
of  accumulation  of  Neolithic  remains,  and  they  enable 
us  at  least  to  attempt  the  task  of  reconstruction. 

Deferring  for  a  moment  the  very  difficult  question  of 
race,  we  find  two  marked  phases  of  cultural  development. 
The  first  is  revealed  in  the  shell-mounds  and  in  the  more 
primitive  of  the  scattered  implements;  and  to  this  stage 
may  be  referred  many  of  those  human  remains  which  we 
discussed  in  connection  with  the  transition  to  the  New 
Stone  Age.  We  have  a  race  of  men,  taller  and  more 
graceful  in  build  than  their  predecessors,  with  the  simian 
features  almost  obliterated.      The  advancing  brain  has 


late  V. 


Neolithic  Arrow  Heads  of  Flint,  from  Ireland. 

(British  Museum.) 


Prehistoric  Man,  82 


The  Monument  Builders  83 

raised  the  dome  of  the  forehead,  and  the  heavy  frontal 
ridges  have  shrunk  in  proportion.  Improvement  in  diet 
has  brought  the  jaws  and  teeth  nearer  to  the  modern 
standard.  This  race  is  still  "  long-headed,"  and,  whether 
it  be  an  invading  race  or  no,  is  not  so  far  removed  from 
the  later  Paleolithic  as  to  be  beyond  the  range  of  direct 
evolution.  If  we  adopt  Professor  Sergi's  idea  of  a 
Mediterranean  race,  living  north  and  south  of  the  inland 
sea,  we  may  still  bring  early  Neolithic  man  from  Africa 
without  a  serious  breach  of  continuity.  We  return  to 
that  point  later. 

The  culture  of  the  early  New  Stone  Man  is  not  so 
startlingly  higher  than  that  of  his  predecessor  as  used  to 
be  believed.  His  stone  implements  show  the  finer  finish 
which  we  should  expect,  in  harmony  with  the  evolution 
of  his  brain.  He  uses  a  bow  and  arrow  habitually ; 
though  it  is  claimed  that  these  were  known  to  late 
Paleolithic  man.  He  has  much  personal  adornment  of 
shells  and  perforated  teeth :  another  practice  which 
began  in  the  late  Paleolithic.  He  has  tamed  the  dog 
(taking  the  shell-mound  phase  as  early  Neolithic),  but 
not  yet  the  ox  and  the  sheep;  probably  in  the  south  he 
has  already  tamed  the  horse.  He  has  invented  a  crude 
pottery,  but  there  is  as  yet  no  clear  evidence  in  the  early 
Neolithic  of  agriculture,  weaving,  or  ceremonial  concern 
for  the  dead.  On  the  other  hand,  he  has  lost  the  artistic 
skill  of  the  Magdalenian  and  Azilian  cave-dweller. 

The  invention  of  pottery  is  one  of  the  most  distinctive 
advances  of  Neolithic  man,  and  it  merits  brief  considera- 
tion. Mr.  Clodd  (The  Story  of  Primitive  Man)  has 
plausibly  suggested  that  the  invention  of  pottery  may  be 


84  Prbhistoric  Man 

the  accidental  result  of  primitive  cooking.  It  is  claimed, 
we  saw,  that  the  charred  remains  of  feasts,  and  even 
stone  vessels  for  cooking,  are  discovered  in  the  Paleo- 
lithic. It  is  generally  believed  that  late  Paleolithic  man 
cooked  his  horse  or  reindeer  joint.  If  we  imagine  him 
daubing  a  wicker  or  rush  vessel  with  clay,  to  prevent  the 
charring  of  the  meat,  we  see  that  he  would  in  the  end 
find  himself  in  possession  of  crude  earthenware  vessels. 
The  clay  would  harden  and  retain  its  form.  It  is  held 
that  the  curious  marks  (as  if  made  with  the  finger-nail) 
which  we  find  on  the  earliest  pottery,  are  a  crude 
imitation  of  the  marks  that  would  be  made  on  the  clay 
by  the  assumed  framework  of  wicker  or  rushes  in  the 
primitive  cooking. 

Clay  is  so  plastic  a  material  that,  if  the  artistic  race 
had  persisted,  we  might  very  well  expect  it  to  do  much 
finer  work  than  it  had  been  able  to  do  in  stone  or  ivory. 
We  find,  however,  no  advantage  whatever  taken  of  the 
new  material.  Not  only  does  the  old  artistic  industry 
die  out,  but  the  new  ornamentation  is  of  a  remarkably 
inferior  character.  The  graceful  lines  of  animal  forms 
are  replaced  by  monotonous  circles  and  spirals  which 
betray  the  death  of  the  old  inspiration.  In  one  case 
only  have  we  found  a  few  crude  clay  statuettes. 
Generally,  the  marking  on  the  early  pottery,  on  which 
the  Magdalenian  artist  could  have  worked  so  skilfully, 
is  so  crude  and  meaningless  that  the  earlier  artistic 
models  seem  to  be  wholly  forgotten.  Artistically,  man 
sinks  back  to  a  low  savage  level.  As  he  undoubtedly 
had  advanced  considerably  in  intelligence,  this  points 
strongly   to   a    large    movement    and    displacement   of 


The  Moxument  Builders  85 

population.  Such  movement  would  also  enable  us  to 
understand  the  intellectual  advance  itself. 

From  the  crushed  and  scattered  relics  of  the  New 
Stone  Age  we  are  unable  to  retrace  the  steps  by  which 
Neolithic  man  advances  toward  the  threshold  of  civilisa- 
tion. When  we  reach  our  next  firm  ground,  we  find 
him  very  materially  advanced,  though  by  no  means 
farther  advanced  than  the  lapse  of  time  and  his  relatively 
high  intelligence  enable  us  to  understand. 

In  1853  there  was  an  exceptionally  dry  season  in 
Switzerland,  and  the  receding  waters  of  the  lake  at 
Zurich  exposed  a  number  of  ancient  piles  on  the 
lake-bottom.  Further  search  was  made,  and,  in  that 
and  the  following  year,  further  groups  of  piles  were 
discovered  in  the  margins  of  the  Alpine  lakes.  Savage 
life  supplied  a  clue  once  more  to  the  interpretation  of 
antiquity.  It  may  be,  indeed,  that  some  Swiss  student 
recollected  how  later  Romans  had  taken  refuge  on  the 
islands  in  the  lakes  from  the  descending  barbarians. 
In  any  case,  the  villages  which  are  built  to-day  over 
the  water  on  piles  in  New  Guinea  and  Malasia — 
numbers  may  be  seen  at  Singapore — suggested  that 
similar  pile-villages  had  been  built  over  the  waters  of 
the  Swiss  lakes  several  millennia  before  the  Christian 
era.  The  finding  of  prehistoric  implements  among  the 
mud  put  this  beyond  question. 

Subsequent  inquiry  extended  both  the  analogy  and 
the  number  of  settlements.  The  "  crannoges "  of 
Ireland  (and  a  few  in  Scotland)  were  similar  refuges 
from  the  mainland — in  this  case  artificial  islands, 
approached  by  gangways  of  stone  or  wood,  which  could 


86  Prehistoric  Man 

easily  be  cut  off,  or  in  boats.  Traces  of  similar  settle- 
ments have  been  discovered  in  Japan,  Austria,  France, 
and  England.  The  most  extensive  centre  of  pile- 
villages,  however,  is  the  Alpine  district.  In  the  lakes 
of  Switzerland  and  those  parts  of  France,  Italy, 
Germany,  and  Austria  which  surround  the  mass  of  the 
Alps,  nearly  300  such  settlements  have  been  detected. 
They  range  from  small  clusters  of  hut-piles  to  large 
villages  230  yards  long  and  55  yards  deep.  In  the 
Bronze  Age  they  became  even  larger.  The  settlement 
at  Robenhausen  is  calculated  to  have  been  supported 
by  about  100,000  piles  (12  feet  in  length  and  18  inches 
in  circumference)  of  cedar,  oak,  and  beech  wood. 
Cross-beams  are  believed  to  have  provided  the  platform 
on  which  the  floor  of  the  hut  was  laid. 

The  comparison  with  the  pile-dwellings  of  the  Indian 
Ocean  must  not  be  understood  to  mean  that  there 
is  any  parallel  in  the  culture  of  the  races.  The  Swiss 
Neolithic  men  were  far  higher  than  the  Papuans 
or  the  lower  Malays.  The  situation  of  their  huts — 
chosen,  no  doubt,  for  defence  against  a  race  on  the 
lancl — was  excellent  for  transmitting  the  details  of  their 
household  to  remote  ages.  Whenever  a  hut  was 
destroyed,  or  a  settlement  fired,  quantities  of  interesting 
material  were  entombed  in  the  lake.  Children  playing 
on  the  gangways  would  drop  articles  in  the  water, 
and  in  many  other  ways  the  lake-bottom  was  enriched. 
In  some  of  the  smaller  lakes  an  accumulation  of  peat 
took  place  over  the  lake-bottom,  and  helped  to  preserve 
the  relics  for  us.  In  this  way  we  are  enabled  to  build 
up  a  fairly  ample  picture  of  the  life  of  late  Neolithic 
man. 


The  Monument  Builders  87 

There  is  abundant  evidence  that  agriculture  was  now 
well  developed.  We  trace  three  kinds  of  wheat,  two 
kinds  of  barley,  and  two  kinds  of  millet  in  the  debris. 
Quorns  for  grinding  or  bruising  the  corn — not  unlike 
the  stone  quorns  still  in  use  in  many  places— are  also 
found,  and  we  even  have  fragments  of  the  cakes  into 
which  the  rough  flour  was  baked.  Rye  and  oats  come 
later,  in  the  Bronze  Age.  Many  writers  see  a  signi- 
ficance in  the  early  domesticated  plants  of  Neolithic 
man.  Dr.  Hoernes  points  out  that  Babylonia  and 
Egypt  got  their  barley  and  wheat  from  the  north,  and 
that  the  native  home  of  these  plants  was  probably 
on  the  Asiatic  plains.*  This  may  be  recalled  in  connec- 
tion with  other  indications  that  the  race  came  from 
the  direction  of  Asia. 

There  are  traces  of  fruits  and  berries,  and  there  is 
ample  proof  of  cattle-rearing.  Oxen  and  goats  were 
early  domesticated  (as  well  as  the  dog) :  the  sheep, 
horse,  cat,  and  fowl  come  later,  or  are  only  found  in 
abundance  when  we  enter  the  Bronze  Age.  In  some 
places  the  cattle  seem  to  have  been  brought  on  to 
the  settlement  from  the  fields  at  night.  We  have, 
apparently,  traces  of  dressed  hide,  or  leather,  as  if 
some  kind  of  foot-covering  was  made.  Though  clothing 
may  still  have  consisted  largely  of  animal  skins,  we  find 
that  the  pile-dwellers  could  weave,  and  fragments  of  the 
coarse  fabrics  they  made  have  been  preserved.  Wild 
flax  was  the  chief  material  used,  together  with  straw, 
Numerous   stone   spindle-whorls   are   found.      A   great 

*  Primitive  Man,  1900  (Temple  Primers). 


88  Prehistoric  Man 

taste  for  personal  adornment  is  shown  as  we  approach 
the  Bronze  Age,  and  certain  clay  balls,  with  stones  in 
them,  are  regarded  as  children's  toys. 

From  all  these  details  we  obtain  a  fair  picture  of  life 
in  Europe  before  the  age  of  Metal  sets  in.  A  hut  that 
was  carefully  traced  proved  to  be  an  oblong  structure, 
33  feet  by  23,  divided  into  two  chambers.  It  had  its 
door  and  fire-place,  and  probably  walls  of  wattle  and 
mud,  with  a  thatched  roof  of  grass  or  reeds.  The 
domestic  life  shows  us  the  culmination  of  the  Stone  Age 
— a  long  stride  from  the  naked  repulsive  wanderer  of  the 
river-drift  to  the  ordered  and  well-built  home  in  a 
protected  settlement,  with  wife  cooking  in  clay  vessels  or 
making  cakes  and  tending  the  little  ones,  while  the  father 
rears  his  cattle  or  his  grain  on  the  lake-shores.  Here 
again,  however,  we  trace  a  gradual  growth:  indeed,  it  is 
nowhere  more  apparent  than  in  the  Alpine  settlements. 
We  have  not  only  the  direct  transition  from  the  Stone 
to  the  Bronze  Age,  but  some  succession  can  be  observed 
in  the  New  Stone  settlements  themselves.  The  making 
of  implements  becomes  more  refined  in  finish  and  in 
choice  of  materials,  and  the  clay  pottery  takes  on  a 
higher  degree  of  ornamentation.  The  animals  also  are 
domesticated  successively,  the  dog  and  a  small  ox 
appearing  first  under  human  control.  In  some  places 
we  find  three  settlements  in  succession  on  the  same  site, 
each  indicating  a  higher  grade  of  culture. 

What  the  relation  of  these  pile-dwellers  was  to  the 
earlier  Neolithic  men,  and  how  far  their  development  was 
influenced  by  a  new,  bronze-using  race,  must  be  consid- 
ered later.     We  shall  return  to  the  pile-dwellers  in  the 


The  Monument  Builders  89 

next  chapter,  when  we  shall  find  them  in  possession  of  a 
rich  collection  of  bronze,  before  they  are  finally  destroyed 
or  driven  away  at  the  beginning  of  the  Iron  Age.  Our 
picture  of  Neolithic  life  has  first  to  be  completed  by  a 
consideration  of  the  stone  monuments  which  are  still  so 
liberally  scattered  over  Britain,  and  other  parts  of  the 
world,  after  a  lapse  of  several  millennia. 

The  Neolithic  men  of  the  pile-villages  do  not  seem  to 
have  erected  any  of  the  stone  monuments  which  are  so 
closely  associated  with  their  age.  It  is  another  point 
which  confirms  some  theorists  in  the  belief  that  they 
had  invaded  Neolithic  Europe  from  Asia,  along  the  valley 
of  the  Danube.  In  other  parts  of  the  earth,  however, 
and  especially  in  Britain,  Neolithic  man  has  left  enduring 
memorials  of  his  activity  in  the  "megaliths"  or  large 
stone  erections,  which  were  until  recently  ascribed  to 
the  "Druids" 

Such  monuments  may  be  roughly  classified  as  single 
stones  or  menhirs,  table-stones  or  dolmens,  round 
circles  or  cromlechs,  obvious  tombs  or  barrows  (long 
and  round),  lines  and  avenues  and  large  circles  of  stone. 
The  meaning  of  these  erections  has  filled  whole  volumes 
of  controversy.  To-day — setting  aside  an  astronomical 
theory,  which  we  will  consider — the  tendency  is  to  take 
the  barrow  as  the  complete  type,  and  interpret  the  rest 
in  harmony.  The  barrow  is  found  to  cover  a  Neolithic 
grave  or  graves,  and  most  of  the  megalithic  construc- 
tions seem  to  be  either  reduced  relics  or  enlargements 
of  it,  or  in  some  way  connected  with  the  homes  of  the 
Neolithic  dead.  We  will,  therefore,  consider  the  barrow 
first. 


03  Prehistoric  Man 

When  Paleolithic  man,  or  rather,  his  Neolithic 
descendant,  left  his  cave-home,  and  began  to  build  huts, 
it  is  assumed  by  many  that  he  more  or  less  imitated  the 
form  of  the  cave  in  his  construction.  The  hut  of  the 
modern  Eskimo  is  regarded  as  a  fair  illustration  of  what 
he  would  do  ;  to  some  extent  we  might  add  the  ancient 
British  hut,  which  we  shall  consider  shortly.  The 
inference  is  precarious,  since  we  have  only  late  Neolithic 
models.  If  we  refer  to  the  practice  of  savages  for 
instruction,  we  usually  find  that  the  first  hut  is  merely 
a  screen  made  from  the  branches  of  trees.  However 
that  may  be,  it  is  clear  that  man  had  begun  to  bury  his 
dead  in  caves,  and  many  writers  believe  that  the  barrow 
is  an  attempt  to  imitate  the  traditional  place  of  burial, 
when  interment  was  necessary  in  a  cave-less  district. 

The  conjecture  is  somewhat  airy,  but  the  nature  of 
the  barrow  is  sufficiently  consistent  with  it.  The  Neo- 
lithic home  of  the  dead  consisted  essentially  of  two  or 
more  large  stones,  raised  on  end,  with  a  large  and 
massive  capstone.  Under  the  shelter  of  these  the 
remains  were  placed,  and  a  huge  mound  of  earth  was 
then  deposited  over  it.  This  is  the  simplest  type  of 
barrow  or  "  tumulus."  In  many  cases  it  was  usual  to 
bury  many  people  under  the  same  tumulus,  and  there 
might  then  be  several  chambers  in  the  barrow,  with  a 
long,  stone-covered  passage,  and  sometimes  more  than 
one  entrance.  In  more  important  caves  a  series  of  up- 
turned large  stones  might  be  placed  round  the  edges  of 
the  mound  of  earth,  to  strengthen  or  adorn  it.  In 
others  an  avenue  or  line  of  stones  might  mark  the 
approach  to  it.     Thus  the  cave  of  the  dead  differentiates 


The  Monument  Builders  91 

into  many  forms,  and  most  of  the  stone-monuments  of 
this  country  seem  reducible  to  it  in  one  way  or  other. 

In  many  cases  the  mound  of  earth  has  been  removed, 
either  by  natural  causes  or  human  cupidity — farmers 
have  been  known  to  cart  it  away  even  in  recent  times — 
and  the  stones  which  once  covered  the  death-chamber 
are  left  exposed.  We  should  thus  get  a  dolmen  like  the 
famous  Kit's  Coty  Hole,  in  Kent,  and  the  innumerable 
dolmens  of  Denmark.  In  other  cases  only  the  encircling 
stones  may  appear,  and  we  get  a  cromlech.  In  other 
cases  again  one  single  gigantic  stone  may  remain,  reared 
on  one  end,  and  we  have  a  menhir,  or  monolith.  It  is 
clear  that  in  this  way  we  have  a  plausible  theory  of  most 
of  our  stone-monuments,  but  there  are  other  theories 
which  the  student  has  to  bear  in  mind.  Sir  Norman 
Lockyer,  who  has  for  some  years  paid  close  attention  to 
our  stone-monuments,  believes  that  the  astronomical 
clue  is  more  likely  to  lead  to  a  correct  interpretation. 
The  dolmens  would,  on  this  theory,  be  observatories, 
from  which  the  position  of  the  sun  could  be  accurately 
determined,  and  the  calendar  indicated.  We  know  that 
the  early  British  priests,  having  a  solar  cult,  must  have 
made  such  observations  (like  the  Babylonian,  Persian, 
and  other  priests).  The  barrows  and  dolmens,  however, 
go  back  much  earlier  than  Druidism,  and  we  know 
nothing  of  pre-Druidic  religion  in  Britain.  The  theory 
applies  more  particularly,  as  we  shall  see,  to  the  greater 
monuments. 

The  distribution  of  dolmens  by  no  means  coincides 
with  the  area  covered  by  Neolithic  man.  The  map 
given   in    Cleuziou's   Creation  de  Vhomme   shows  that 


92  Prehistoric  Man 

they  are  found  most  abundantly  in  India  and  in  Western 
Europe,  with  a  faint  offshoot  in  the  further  East  (Japan) 
and  a  few  patches — as  of  stations  on  a  line  of  march — 
between  India  and  France  (Syria,  the  Caucasus,  Greece, 
Corsica  and  Sardinia,  and  North  Africa).  In  the  south 
of  Spain  and  Portugal  they  are  found  in  increasing 
abundance,  and  the  line  travels  round  the  west  coast  of 
Spain  to  Prance.  In  the  latter  country  they  are  very 
numerous,  and  the  line  is  then  continued  through  the 
west  of  England,  Wales  and  Ireland,  Scotland,  North 
Germany,  Denmark,  and  Scandinavia.  This  peculiar 
distribution  has  given  rise  to  much  conjecture  in  regard 
to  the  race  of  dolmen-builders,  but  before  we  can 
consider  such  speculation  a  word  must  be  said  on  the 
classic  distinction  of  "  long  "  and  "  round  "  barrows. 

The  distinction  of  skulls,  to  which  we  have  already 
referred,  into  "  long "  and  "  round "  (or  short)  was 
found  to  apply  to  barrows,  and  it  has  been  established 
that  the  long  barrow  covers  dolichocephalic  remains, 
while  the  round  barrow  reveals  the  site  of  a  brachy- 
cephalic  burial.  It  was  further  established  that  the 
long  barrows — take,  for  instance,  the  mound  at  Uley, 
which  measures  120  feet  by  85 — all  belong  to  the  Stone 
Age,  while  the  round  barrows  contain  bronze  implements. 
Some  doubt  has  been  thrown  on  this  distinction  of  late 
years,  but  it  does  not  seem  to  have  been  sustained.  The 
long  barrows  sometimes  contain  scanty  gold  ornaments 
in  France  and  Scandinavia — a  proof  that  we  are  near, 
or  in,  the  age  of  metal — but  they  are  overwhelmingly 
Neolithic.  A  further  distinction,  as  Dr.  Windle  points 
out,  is  that  the  long  barrow  is  usually  in  the  nature  of  a 


The  .Monument  Builders  93 

collective  vault;  the  round  barrow  a  single  tomb.*  The 
round  barrows  also  occur  in  groups,  or  circles. 

The  mode  of  burial  is  another  element  of  confusion. 
Both  cremation  and  inhumation  are  practised,  in 
both  types  of  barrows,  and  it  is  impossible  to  sift  out 
any  general  principles  from  the  mass  of  evidence.  In 
the  Neolithic  graves,  it  is  true,  we  find  cremation  pre- 
dominant in  the  north  of  England,  and  inhumation  in 
the  west ;  but  no  explanation  of  this  is  given,  and  in  the 
round  barrows  we  have — as  the  explorations  of  Dr. 
Thurnam  and  Canon  Greenwell  have  shown — an  extra- 
ordinary difference  of  practice  in  the  different  counties 
of  England.  In  some  cases  burnt  and  unburnt  bodies 
have  been  buried  simultaneously ;  though  in  these 
cases  it  is  suggested  that  the  unburnt  body  may  be 
that  of  the  chief,  and  the  charred  remains  those  of 
his  household  or  slaves  who  may  have  been  despatched 
with  him,  according  to  a  custom  that  was  known  to 
many  races. 

It  will  be  seen,  therefore,  that  as  far  as  the  Neolithic 
period  is  concerned,  we  meet  very  serious  difficulties  in 
attempting  to  trace  the  identity  of  the  mound-builders. 
The  most  generally  received  theory  is  that  two  races 
spread  over  Europe  during  the  Neolithic  period.  The 
first  and  more  primitive  race — commonly  known  as  the 
Iberians  or  Ivernians  or  Euskarians  in  the  west,  and  the 
Pelasgians,    etc.,    of    the   south — displaced    Paleolithic 

*  Naturally,  the  barrow  is  not  an  ordinary  Neolithic  or 
Bronze  grave,  but  the  tomb  of  some  man  or  woman  of 
distinction.  The  scarcity  or  abundance  of  stone  may  also 
affect  the  question. 


94  Prehistoric  Man 

man,  and  spread  the  early  Neolithic  culture  over 
Europe.  Whether  this  race  was  a  continuation  of  the 
Paleolithic,  or  an  intrusion  from  Africa  or  Asia,  is 
disputed.  It  is  generally  held  to  survive  in  the  Picts  of 
Scotland  and  the  Basques.  Later,  on  the  commonly 
received  theory,  there  was  a  fresh  displacement  of  the 
population,  and  the  new-comers  are  associated  with  the 
supposed  Aryan  race,  the  theory  of  which  is  modified  in 
various  ways.  Many  writers  now  hold  that  the  Aryans 
were  developed  in  Eastern  Europe,  or,  at  the  most,  in 
Western  Asia — not  in  Central  Asia.  Most  writers 
admit  that  they  did  not  bring  a  higher  civilisation,  but 
had  the  character  of  comparative  barbarians. 

The  question  is  important,  because  it  must  supply  the 
key  to  the  problem  of  the  origin  of  the  actual  European 
races  (apart  from  known  Asiatic  intrusions,  such  as  the 
Magyars  and  Turks).  Unfortunately,  we  are  scarcely 
nearer  agreement  than  in  the  days  when  the  old  Aryan 
theory  was  first  discredited.  The  old  theory  was  attrac- 
tive in  its  simplicity.  The  Aryan  race  was  located  on 
the  tableland  to  the  north-east  of  India.  From  that 
point  a  branch  passed  into  India,  another  branch  into 
Persia,  and  a  further  branch  into  Europe,  to  split  into 
the  familiar  cognate  nations  of  Kelt,  Teuton,  Slav, 
Greek,  and  Roman.  The  earlier  Neolithic  population 
was  either  absorbed  or  extinguished,  save  for  the 
surviving  fragments  of  the  Basques  and  the  Picts.  This 
theory  has,  however,  been  strongly  assailed  by  philolo- 
gists, craniologists,  and  sociologists,  and  until  a  few 
years  ago  one  hardly  dared  to  speak  of  the  Aryan  race. 

The   chief    modification   of    the   older   view   was    to 


The  Monument  Builders  95 

introduce  first  a  brachycephalic  non-Aryan  race  from 
Asia,  along  the  valley  of  the  Danube,  and  make  it 
mingle  with,  and  largely  displace,  the  older  dolicho- 
cephalic race.  Later — one  writer  puts  the  date  at 
about  2500  B.C.,  but  most  would  make  it  much  earlier 
— the  tall,  blonde  men  of  the  Aryan  race  proper  are 
said  to  fall  upon  this  Alpine  (or  Celtic,  or  Ligurian) 
race  of  short,  dark  men.  On  this  theory  the  short» 
dark  element  in  Southern  and  Western  Europe  would 
belong  to  the  non-Aryan  Neolithic,  and  the  tall,  fair 
element  to  the  Aryan.  Others,  however,  following 
Professor  Sergi,  re-unite  the  blonde  and  the  dark  in  a 
common  "  Mediterranean  race."  This  race  is  represented 
as  having  three  main  branches  —  the  Afric  (seen  in 
the  actual  Libyan  tribes),  the  Iberians,  Ligurians,  and 
Pelasgians  of  the  three  South-European  peninsulas,  and 
the  Nordic  or  Teutonic.  This  great  race  was  non-Aryan, 
and  gave  rise  to  the  early  Latin  and  Greek  civilisations. 
The  Aryans  were  a  Eur-Asiatic  race,  who  partly  des- 
troyed the  Eur-African  civilisation,  and  imposed  their 
languages  on  the  non-Aryan  peoples. 

Others,  again,  hold  that  the  Aryans— many  German 
writers  identify  them  with  the  Teutons,  and  French 
writers  with  the  Celts,  while  Taylor  holds  that  the 
Lithuanians  are  the  original  Aryans — were  evolved  in 
Northern  or  North-eastern  Europe,  and  descended 
thence  upon  Greece  and  Italy.  Matters  are  still  further 
complicated  by  a  recent  contention  of  Mr.  Gray,  an 
acute  student  of  geology  who  has  made  a  close  examina- 
tion of  the  stone  circles  of  Britain,  that  these  monuments 
are  due  to  an   intrusion   of   a  totally  different  people, 


96  Prehistoric  Man 

probably  of  Akkadian  (Turkic)  affinity,  who  worked 
their  way  from  the  south-west  of  England  to  the  north 
of  Scotland.*  Finally,  Professor  Ridgeway  has  lately 
endeavoured  to  undermine  the  whole  principle  of 
classification  and  its  outcome  in  theories  of  migration. 
He  points  out  that  a  high  latitude  is  known  (as  in  the 
case  of  the  Mongols)  to  modify  the  shape  of  the  skull 
and  make  it  shorter,  and  that  therefore  the  Alpine  race 
(which  Sergi  describes  as  Aryan,  and  others  as  non- 
Aryan)  may  have  been  developed  in  that  mountainous 
region  itself  from  a  dolichocephalic  stock.  The  moun- 
tainous regions  of  Anatolia,  Albania,  etc.,  may  have  had 
the  same  effect  in  producing  brachycephalic  peoples,  so 
that  we  need  not  multiply  invasions.  He  further 
contends  that  the  imposition  of  languages  on  conquered 
races  is  opposed  to  the  facts  of  history,  and  thus 
rehabilitates  the  older  argument  (from  community  of 
language)  for  the  unity  of  the  Aryan  race.f  The 
Basques  he  conceives  to  be  the  relic  of  an  intrusion 
from  Africa. 

It  is  impossible  to  enter  further  here  into  the  per- 
plexing problem  of  the  Neolithic  population  of  Europe, 
and  I  will  be  content  to  resume  in  a  few  lines  the  trend 
of  speculation.  Apart  from  the  Basques  there  is  no 
admitted  proof  of  pre-Aryan  tongues  in  Europe,  but  it  is 
unknown  whether  early  Neolithic  man  developed  in 
Europe  from  Paleolithic,  or  came  from  Africa  or  Asia. 

*  Nature,  December  24th,  1908. 

t  Presidential  speech  to  the  Anthropological  Section  of  the 
British  Association,  1908  {Nature,  September  24th). 


The  Monument  Bl-ilders  97 

I  have  civen  certain  indications  which  point  to  immigra- 
tion, and  North  Africa  seems  to  be  the  likeliest  source. 
There   are   then    strong   grounds    for   suspecting   three 
successive  further  immigrations,  or  at  least  irruptions 
into  known  from  unknown  parts  of  Europe.     One  race 
seems  to  have  penetrated  by  way  of  the  Danube  valley 
—the  "Alpine  race"  of  most  writers;  another  race-the 
monument-builders-seems   to    have   come    by   way    of 
North  Africa,  Spain,  France,  and  Britain,  to  Scandinav.a, 
Possibly  both  these  movements  start  from  the  fermenting 
region,  on  the  border  of  Asia  and  Africa,  where  civilisa- 
tion  first  appears,  and   may  be  connected.     The  third 
immigration    is    that    of    the    Aryans.       But    the    exact 
relation  of  these  races  to  each  other  and  to  the  later 
peoples  of  Europe  is  not  yet  determinable. 

We  see,  therefore,  that  the  abundance  of  dolmens, 
cromlechs,  and  tumuli  does  not  carry  us  much  further 
into  the  racial  problem,  which  is  now  the  central  prob- 
lem of  prehistoric  science.  Nor  do  the  remaining  stone 
monuments  give  much  assistance.  These  are,  we  saw, 
stone  circles,  lines  and  avenues  of  standing  stones,  and 
large  monuments  like  Avebury  and  Stonehenge. 

Circles  are  divided  by  Dr.  Windle  into  five  groups: 

(1)  circles  composed  of  cists  (graves,  or  small  dohnens) ; 

(2)  circles  of  stones  which  once  surrounded  a  mound, 
either  for  support  or  as  a  superstitious  fence  to  keep  the 
spirits  from  wandering;  (3)  stones  which  were  at  one 
time  within  a  barrow  that  has  disappeared ;  (4)  small 
circles  surrounding  a  grave;  (5)  great  circles  like 
Stonehenge.  Dr.  Windle  claims  that  the  fitfst  four 
classes  are  obviously  of  funereal  origin;  though  we  must 


98  Prehistoric  Man 

bear  in  mind  Mr.  Gray's  contention,  on  the  ground  of 
the  peculiar  skulls  associated  with  them,  that  the  chief 
circles  (Dartmoor,  Aberdeenshire,  and  Invernessshire) 
are  due  to  a  race  of  oriental  affinities. 

Alignments  and  avenues  of  stones  may  be  indications 
of  burial-sites,  or  monuments  connected  with  solar  or 
other  worship.  Both  theories  have  distinguished  sup- 
porters; and  indeed  there  have  been  suggestions  made 
of  serpent  worship  in  connection  with  some  of  the  lines. 
The  great  monument  at  Karnac  is  the  supreme  example 
of  this  kind  of  construction.  Of  this  immense  procession 
of  standing  stones,  more  than  a  mile  in  length,  there 
were  still  4,000  standing  in  the  eighteenth  century. 
The  natives  had  a  theory  that  they  were  the  petrified 
remains  of  a  legion  of  Roman  soldiers,  who  had  been 
turned  into  stone  by  St.  Cornelius.  As  the  same 
natives  religiously  repaired  thither  to  light  bonfires  at 
the  summer  solstice,  many  claimed  that  there  was  in 
this  a  trace  of  a  connection  with  the  ancient  sun- 
worship. 

Stonehenge  has  been  the  subject  of  endless  specula- 
tion. Mr.  A.  Evans  concluded  some  years  ago  that 
Stonehenge  was  probably  of  the  same  age  as  the 
neighbouring  barrows,  and  therefore  only  went  back  to 
about  250  B.C.  More  recently  the  date  has  been 
assigned  at  between  1800  and  1700  B.C.  Professor 
Gowland  suggested  the  former  date  on  archaeological 
grounds,  and  Sir  Norman  Lockyer,  who  regards  it 
confidently  as  a  solar  temple  and  observatory,  found 
that  the  date  of  construction  would,  on  the  astronomical 
theory,  be  about  1700  b.c.      A  very  close  inquiry  was 


The  Monument  Builders  99 

made  in  connection  with  Sir  N.  Lockyer's  research,  anJ 
it  was  concluded  that  the  present  monument  was  built 
on  the  site  of  an  earlier  vast  structure.  Hence,  though 
the  present  structure  was  raised  by  the  bronze-using 
Kelts— who  apparently  used  stone  implements  in  building 
it— the  temple  or  monument  belongs  really  to  the 
earlier  Neolithic  population.  It  is  believed  that  the 
outer  circle  originally  consisted  of  thirty  stones,  with  a 
continuous  capital,  and  a  diameter  of  about  100  feet. 
Other  writers  regard  it  as  a  monument  to  the  dead,  or 
as  an  assembly  place. 

The  Ave  bury  monument  is  believed  to  have  been  the 
most  imposing  of  all  in  its  pristine  splendour.  There 
were,  apparently,  two  inner  circles  of  stones,  surrounded 
by  an  outer  circle  of  100  stones,  each  from  15  to  17  feet 
high.  The  fosse  is  still  40  feet  deep  in  places,  and 
encloses  (with  the  rampart)  an  area  of  2S<7  acres. 

A  further  proof  of  the  religious  feeling  of  Neolithic 
man  is  seen  by  some  writers  in  the  fact  that,  from  the 
beginning  of  the  New  Stone  Age  we  find  trepanned 
skulls,  and  also  find  that  the  pieces  removed  are  worn 
as  amulets"  It  is  conjectured  (Broca)  that  the  opera- 
tion, which  was  performed  with  a  sharp  Hint  knife,  was 
designed  to  let  out  an  evil  spirit;  or  (Munro)  that  the 
aim  was  to  relieve  bodily  or  mental  disease,  and  the 
cranial  fragment  afterwards  worn  as  a  charm.  The 
operation  speaks  well  for  the  skill  and  intelligence  of 
Neolithic  man,  but  the  inference  as  to  his  superstitious 

*  See,  especially,  a  chapter  in  Dr.  Munro's  Prehistoric 
Problems.     Broca  also  urges  the  conclusion. 


100  Prehistoric  Mam 

feeling  is  not  very  safe.  Among  savage  nations  which 
practise  the  operation  to-day  the  aim  is  purely  surgical. 
Only  two  other  relics  of  Neolithic  man  remain  fur 
consideration.  There  are  the  "  souterrains  "  (or  "  dene- 
holes")  and  "hut-circles"  (or  "pit-dwellings"),  of 
which  we  have  many  examples  in  England.  The 
underground  chambers  are  probably  storehouses,  and 
may  belong  to  the  British  period.  The  pit-dwellings 
are  earlier,  and  seem  to  indicate  the  earliest  type  of 
house  of  which  we  have  direct  knowledge.  A  hole, 
twelve  to  thirty  feet  in  diameter,  and  three  to  six  feet  in 
depth,  was  dug  in  the  ground.  The  earth  was  often 
heaped  round  it,  possibly  to  keep  out  water.  The  roof 
seems  to  have  been  of  branches  covered  with  turf,  and, 
if  necessary,  supported  by  a  central  tree  or  pole. 


The  Metal  Age  and  the  Daw*  of  History      101 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE    METAL    AGE    AND    THE    DAWN    OP    HISTORY 

If  the  New  Stone  Age  has  proved  a  period  of 
comparative  brevity  after  the  slow,  stupendous  length  of 
the  Old  Stone  Age,  the  Metal  Age  will  now  prove  to  be 
far  briefer  as  a  prehistoric  epoch.  In  one  sense  the 
Metal  Age  is  not  prehistoric  at  all.  I  mean  that  the 
historical  period  had  opened  in  Egypt,  and  probably 
in  Mesopotamia,  before  we  have  definite  traces  of  the 
use  of  bronze.  We  have  now  to  be  more  careful  than 
ever  to  distinguish  phases  of  human  industry  rather 
than  chronological  stages.  Mankind  is  now  a  vast 
family  scattered  over  the  entire  earth,  moulded  in  a 
hundred  racial  moulds,  with  a  few  of  the  more  fortun- 
ately situated  branches  of  the  family  outstripping  the 
rest.  There  is  no  longer  the  least  approach  to 
uniformity,  and  so  not  the  least  question  of  a  successive 
series  of  stages  for  the  race. 

How  this  diverse  population  of  the  world  came  about 
is  a  problem  we  ought  to  consider  before  we  enter  upon 
the  last  phase  of  our  subject.  We  have  seen,  however, 
that  the  racial  question,  if  one  of  the  most  interesting,  is 
one  of  the  most  difficult  in  the  whole  of  the  science. 


102  Prhhistoric  Man 

The  speculations  I  have  previously  given  relate  only  to 
that  interesting  group  of  races  which  used  to  be  called 
"Aryan"  or  "Indo-European,"  though  we  saw  that  the 
theory  of  this  great  central  race  has  been  considerably 
modified.  Broadly  speaking,  the  various  existing  races 
may  be  ranged  in  three  great  groups.  Though  colour  is 
not  a  safe  criterion  of  race — since  it  varies  with  latitude 
— -this  broad  classification  may  take  as  its  basis  the 
rough  popular  division  into  black,  white,  and  yellow 
or  red  races." 

In  other  words,  the  Siberians,  Tunguses,  Mongols, 
Koreans,  Turki,  Ugrians,  Eskimo,  and  American  Indians, 
form  one  of  the  great  divisions  of  humanity,  the  "  straight- 
haired"  men,  or  Leiotrichi.  The  negroes  and  negroids 
form  another  great  group— the  Bushmen,  Hottentots, 
Sudanese,  and  Bantu  of  Africa,  with  a  black  strain 
running  across  the  Indian  and  Pacific  Oceans  (the 
Adamanese,  Semang  of  Malasia,  Papuans,  Melanesians, 
and  Aetas,  of  the  Philippines).  These  are  the  "woolly- 
haired"  varieties.  There  then  remains  the  vast  group 
of  the  "wavy-haired"  races,  now  scattered  over  the 
entire  earth,  embracing  some  of  the  very  lowest  and 
most  of  the  highest  races  of  men.  In  this  group  the 
Veddahs,  the  Australians,  the  Sakai,  and  many  of  the 
lower    tribes    about    India,   are    brought    together   with 

*  See  the  previous  volume  in  this  series  by  Professor  H addon, 

Races  of  Man. 


The  Met* l  Age  and  the  Dawn  of  History      103 

the  Indonesians,  Polynesians,  Hamites  (Ethiopians), 
Semites,  and  the  Alpine,  Mediterranean,  and  Nordic 
(Teutonic)  races  of  Europe. 

Ethnology  has  no  less  difficulty  than  prehistoric 
science  in  determining  the  genealogy  of  these  three 
groups  of  races.  All  that  we  can  say  is  that  ten  thou- 
sand years  ago  the  main  lines  of  the  population  of  the 
earth  were  established.  The  "yellow"  men  had  streamed 
off  into  Eastern  and  Northern  Asia,  left  a  branch  to 
become  the  Eskimo  in  the  Arctic,  and  sent  an  offshooi 
into  America  to  become  the  "red"  Indians.  The 
negroids  had  established  themselves  in  Africa,  and  along 
the  island  track  which  I  indicated.  The  third  primitive 
stock  had  flung  out  branches  eastward  into  Australia, 
New  Zealand,  and  the  Pacific  islands,  and  westward 
into  India,  Persia,  Arabia,  Syria,  the  whole  strip  of 
Northern  Africa,  and  the  whole  of  Europe  (the  Neolithic 
invaders). 

Setting  aside  China,  the  antiquity  of  whose  culture 
it  is  impossible  to  determine,  civilisation  began,  some 
10,000  years  ago,  at  a  central  part  of  the  "Cauoasic" 
or  "wavy- haired"  world.  Flinders  Petrie  and  others 
put  the  beginning  in  Egypt  at  about  8000  b.c  For 
something  like  2,000  years  we  have  a  broken  record — 
we  are  still  in  the  prehistoric  age — of  a  native  race 
evolving  its  own  civilisation,  with  constant  irruptions 
from  the  immediate  east  and  west  —  from  Asia 
and    Africa.      In    some    of    the     earliest     graves    we 


104  Prehistoric  Man 

iind  copper  pins,  as  well  as  pottery.  The  copper- 
implements  increase,  and  the  artistic  quality  of  the 
pottery  and  ornamentation  increases,  as  the  period  of 
prehistoric  civilisation  proceeds.  Towards  its  close 
we  get  carvings  on  slate  which  show  much  the  same 
variety  of  races  as  we  know  to-day  ;  we  have  also 
ample  testimony  to  the  growth  of  shipping,  commerce, 
fighting,  and  the  peaceful  arts  of  civilisation.  This 
prehistoric  culture  decays,  however,  and  the  dynastic 
race,  with  historical  records,  begins  its  new  civilisation 
about  5800  B.C. 

Recent  writers  on  Egypt  are  by  no  means  unanimous 
on  this  early  struggle  of  races  from  east  and  west  with 
an  aboriginal  population,  but,  with  that  reserve,  we  may 
follow    Mr.  Flinders    Petrie.     The   new   dynastic    race, 
bringing  the  historical  civilisation,  came,  he  concludes, 
from    the   direction    of  Arabia.     Now,  the  other  great 
civilisation  of  the  ancient  world  appears  about  the  same 
period,  and  its  beginning  is  traced  to  the  same  moun- 
tainous region  of  Northern  Arabia  or  Southern  Syria. 
A  people    of   mongoloid   character— the    Sumerians   or 
Akkadians— is    discovered    at    Susa   with    a    primitive 
civilisation  about  6000  B.C.     By  5000  B.C.,  when  Babylon 
was  much  nearer  the  sea  than  now,  it  has  passed  into 
the   lowlands  of  Mesopotamia,  and   founded   the  great 
civilisation  of  that  valley.     A  thousand  years  later  the 
civilisation    was    taken    up   from    the   older    Turkik    or 
Mongol  stock  by  a  Semitic  people,  and  the  history  of 
the  Babylonian  empire  begins. 


The  Metal  Age  and  the  Dawn  of  History      105 

Thus  we  have  a  great  centre  of  fermentation  in  the 
region  which  unites  Africa  and  Asia  about  10,000  years 
ago,  and  that  disposes  one  to  regard  the  region  as  the 
ultimate  source  of  the  successive  invasions  of  higher 
races  into  Europe.  Of  the  course  of  civilisation  in  the 
farther  east  it  is  difficult  to  treat.  The  Chinese  and 
Indian  civilisations  seem  to  have  developed  separately, 
and  independently  of  Europe.  The  difficulty  which  some 
experience  in  attributing  the  independent  evolution  of 
civilisation  to  remote  China  seems  to  be  removed  by  the 
fact  that  the  American  branch  of  the  "straight-haired" 
race  did  undoubtedly  evolve  a  civilisation  of  its  own,  in 
Mexico,  Central  America,  and  Peru;  although  it  had  the 
horrible  blemish  of  human  sacrifices  (like  most  early 
civilisations)  there  is  evidence  that  it  was  outgrowing 
this.  Isolation  is,  however,  fatal  to  progress.  The 
great  principle  of  progress  has  ever  been  the  clash 
of  races  and  contrast  of  cultures.  The  geographical 
position  of  the  Afr-Asiatic  region  is  the  chief  secret  of 
its  advance. 

With  this  dawn  of  civilisation  the  life  of  man  now 
becomes  so  complex  that  a  small  manual  like  this 
cannot  hope  even  to  summarise  the  advance  from  the 
Stone  Age.  That  it  was  a  very  gradual  advance  the 
Egyptian  remains  amply  illustrate.  Its  earlier  civilisation 
is  almost  purely  Neolithic.  There  is  not  even  weaving, 
which  we  found  in  the  Swiss  Neolithic  villages,  in  the 
earliest  phase.     There  is,  as  in  the   Neolithic,  a  deep 


136  Prehistoric  Man 

concern  for  the  disposal  of  the  dead,  and  early  in  the 
prehistoric  civilisation  of  Egypt  there  are  definite  cults 
of  deities.  The  chief  advances,  however,  are  the  use  of 
metal  and  of  written  language,  and  we  may  confine 
attention  to  these. 

The  origin   of   spoken   language   is  still   so   purely  a 
matter  of  speculation  that  it  cannot  be  treated  here. 
The    impossibility    of     linking     together     the    remoter 
groups  of   languages   suggests  that  they  were  evolved 
after  the  wide  dispersal  of  the  human  family,  and  we 
saw    reason    to   doubt    whether    Paleolithic    man    had 
articulate   speech.     Undoubtedly  the  social  life  of  the 
late  Paleolithic  would   force  the  development  of  some 
medium     of     communication.       Sounds     which     were 
instinctively    used    would    be    recognised     to    have    a 
conventional      value  —  we      have      permanent     sound- 
expressions   in   the  dog  and  ape,  and  other  animals — 
and   the  association  of    these  sounds   with   objects  or 
actions    would    extend.       Gesture    would    eke    out    the 
scanty  speech  in  the  early  days.     The  Tasmanians  had, 
in  the  nineteenth   century,  so  poor  a  speech,  and  had 
to   supplement   it   so    largely  by   gesture,   that   it   was 
difficult  to  converse  in  the  dark.     Many  tribes  cannot 
count  beyond  three  or  four.     Whether,  however,  verbs 
were  largely  made  by  imitating  the  noise  of  the  action 
to  be  expressed  is  now  much  disputed. 

The  origin  of  written  language  is  easier  to  follow.       In 
the  ancient  Chinese,  Assyrian,  and  Egyptian  writing  we 


The  Metal  Age  and  the  Dawn  of  History      107 

have  a  very  clear  trace  of  the  development.  The 
ancient  Egyptian  writing,  which  we  trace  back  to 
7000  b.c,  was — as  the  hieroglyphics  have  made  generally 
known — a  series  of  pictures  of  the  objects  to  be  repre- 
sented. The  transition  to  this  from  a  sheer  picture- 
message  is  clear;  and  it  is  not  difficult  to  imagine  how  a 
phonetic  alphabet,  or  a  conventional  use  of  a  character, 
would  in  time  arise  from  the  picture-writing.  The 
Chinese  symbols  of  to-day  seem  far  removed  at  first 
sight  from  pictures  of  objects,  but  the  ancient  characters 
show  their  gradual  degradation.  A  Chinese  character  is 
a  word,  not  a  letter  in  the  European  sense,  and  in  the 
early  forms  the  character  was  a  picture  of  an  object. 
"Chariot"  was  represented  by  a  drawing  of  a  chariot, 
and  so  on.  The  Assyrian  cuneiform  characters  also 
seem,  in  their  later  form,  far  removed  from  pictures, 
but  they  are  clear  enough  in  the  earlier  forms.  As, 
however,  the  picturing  had  to  be  done  with  a  series  of 
dabs,  of  a  triangular  instrument  on  a  clay  surface,  the 
outline  of  the  object  was  roughly  represented  by  a 
number  of  disconnected  marks,  and  the  character  easily 
degenerated. 

To  this  plausible  theory  of  the  origin  of  the  alphabet, 
however,  there  are  objections.  That  it  explains  the 
origin  of  the  hieroglyphic,  cuneiform,  and  Chinese  scripts 
may  be  admitted,  but  the  difficulty  of  deriving  the 
European  alphabet  from  them  is  very  great.  Egyptolo- 
gists are  looking  rather  to  certain  marks  or  "signaries," 


1  OS  Prehistoric  Man 

which  are  found  in  pottery  as  far  back  as  7000  B.C., 
and  which  coincide  to  a  great  extent  with  the  earliest 
Huropean  "signaries"  of  some  centuries  before  Christ. 
French  scholars,  on  the  other  hand,  are  maintaining 
that  the  painted  pebbles  of  the  cave  of  Mas  d'  Azil 
(transition  to  the  Neolithic)  show  markings  which  look 
like  a  beginning  of  the  early  alphabet.  Possibly  further 
discoveries  will  throw  light  on  the  question. 

The  other  distinctive  advance  of  humanity  as  it 
approaches  the  historical  period  is  the  discovery  of  the 
use  of  metals.  We  have  so  often  appreciated  the 
difficulty  of  arranging  prehistoric  remains  in  chrono- 
logical order  that  we  cannot  be  surprised  to  encounter 
fresh  difficulties  in  connection  with  the  beginning  of 
metal.  The  Paleolithic  period  was  so  long  that  we 
confidently  distinguish  at  least  its  earlier  from  its  later 
phase.  We  are  in  a  fair  position  to  do  so  in  the 
Neolithic.  But  when  we  come  to  deal  with  a  shorter 
period  we  need  a  finer  standard  of  chronology  than 
is  yet  available  in  prehistoric  science;  and  the  difficulty 
is  enormously  increased  from  the  fact  that  very  different 
levels  of  culture  exist  simultaneously  in  different  parts 
of  the  world.  After  exhaustive  controversy  the  authori- 
ties are  now  generally  agreed  that  bronze  was  used 
before  iron,  and  copper  before  bronze. 

Writers  who  approach  the  subject  from  a  theoretical 
point  of  view  object  that  iron  would  be  the  most  likely 
metal   to   meet   the  eye  of  primitive   man.      Meteoric 


The  Metal  Age  and  the  Dawn  of  History      100 

iron  is  ready  for  fashioning  into  weapons,  and  even 
iron  ore  might  be  found  smelted  by  volcanic  agency 
or  the  unintentional  fire  of  Neolithic  man.  In  point  of 
fact,  however,  iron  implements  are  not  found  except  at 
a  level  which  puts  it  later  than  the  general  use  of 
bronze.  The  painting  of  certain  weapons  blue  or  black 
on  the  Egyptian  papyrie  undoubtedly  represents  iron, 
and  this  occurs  at  a  very  early  date.  The  word  "  iron  " 
is  also  very  early,  and  a  piece  of  iron  has  been  found  in 
the  remains  of  the  fourth  dynasty.  This,  however,  does 
not  show  a  practice  of  smelting  and  moulding  iron,  or 
anything  like  a  general  use  of  it.  The  beating  of  native 
iron  into  rough  weapons  may  meet  the  case.  On  the 
other  hand,  iron  is  plainly  far  later  than  bronze  in  the 
graves  of  Europe,  and  what  is  called  the  Iron  Age  is 
decisively  dated  at  not  earlier  than  the  thirteenth 
century  before  the  Christian  era.  Bronze  was  in 
common  use,  even  in  Britain  and  Scandinavia,  many 
centuries  earlier. 

Copper,  as  we  saw,  is  found  in  Egyptian  remains  about 
8000  b.c,  and  during  the  course  of  the  pre-dynastic 
civilisation  an  increasing  variety  of  implements  are  made 
from  it.  In  Ireland,  Hungary,  Italy,  and  other  regions 
we  seem  to  have  a  similar  precedence  of  copper.  This 
metal  would  in  many  parts  be  found  pure,  and  could 
easily  be  fashioned  into  implements  (chisels,  knives,  etc.) 
or  weapons.  It  is,  therefore,  generally  felt  that  the  age 
of  metal  opens  with  a  copper  phase,  though  this  is  far 
from  being  universal  or  simultaneous. 


110  Prehistoric  Man 

Copper  is,  however,  too  soft  a  material  for  either 
tools  or  weapons,  and  we  find  it  speedily  hardened  with 
an  alloy  of  tin,  in  the  shape  of  the  familiar  bronze.  The 
normal  proportion  is  nine  parts  of  copper  to  one  of  tin, 
but  in  the  earlier  weapons,  or  in  regions  where  tin  is 
scarce,  the  proportion  of  tin  is  much  slighter.  Where 
and  when  the  manufacture  of  this  alloy  first  took  place 
is  a  matter  of  dispute.  In  Denmark  and  Scandinavia, 
where  very  rich  bronze  remains  have  been  discovered, 
it  has  been  possible  to  assign  the  eighteenth  or  seven- 
teenth century  before  Christ  as  the  beginning  of  the 
period.  It  was  introduced  into  Britain  by  the  invading 
Kelts  about  the  same  time,  and  we  are  clearly  thrown 
further  east  for  the  original  manufacture. 

The  earliest  European  civilisation  (probably  of  Asiatic 
origin)  is  known  as  the  "  JEgean,"  and  is  dated  between 
the  thirtieth  and  twentieth  centuries  before  Christ. 
This  was  responsible  for  the  spread  of  bronze  over  the 
Balkan  peninsula,  the  valley  of  the  Danube,  the  Swiss 
lakes,  and  the  north  of  Italy.  The  use  of  bronze  is 
much  older  than  this  in  Egypt.  A  bronze  rod  found  at 
Medum  dates  from  3700  B.C. ;  and  bronze  articles,  of 
native  make  and  advanced  character,  are  found  in 
Mesopotamia  belonging  to  2500  B.C.  These  are  the 
earliest  known  articles,*  but  an  objection  is  raised  to 
our  locating  the  origin  of  bronze  in  Egypt  or  Babylonia 

*  In  the  discussion  on  Professor  iidgeway's  paper  on  the 
Iron  Age— which  I  discuss  presently — Prof.  Flinders  Pctrie 
speaks  of  bronze  as  being  known  in  I  gypt  by  4800  B.C.,  but 
not  in  common  use  until  3,000  years  later.  Most  implements 
were  still  of  stone. 


The  Metal  Age  axd  the  Dawn  of  History      1 1 1 

on  the  ground  that  tin  is  not  found  in  or  near  those 
regions.  It  is  found  in  parts  of  Persia,  and  was  possibly 
found  at  one  time  in  Arabia.  Some  have  conjectured 
that  bronze  was  really  initiated  in  China,  and  transferred 
to  the  west.*  As  we  find  commerce  well  developed  in 
Ei^ypt  long  before  4800  B.C.,  and  in  Babylonia  before 
2500  b.c,  we  may  dispense  with  this  hypothesis. 

The  Bronze  Age  slowly  spread  from  Egypt  to  the 
Mediterranean  civilisations  which  prepared  the  way  for 
that  of  Greece.  The  excavations  in  Asia  Minor  have 
laid  bare  a  civilisation  —  Hissarlik  —  going  back  to 
2500  B.C.,  and  showing  the  beginning  of  bronze  culture. 
The  citadel-hill  of  Troy  was  found  to  contain  the 
successive  ruins  of  six  or  seven  civilisations,  in  super- 
imposed layers.  The  lowest  and  oldest  city  shows  the 
first  streak  of  copper  in  the  Neolithic  Age.  The  second 
stratum  shows  a  civilisation  possessed  of  bronze,  of  good 
quality.  Further  research,  while  throwing  some  doubt 
on  the  existence  of  a  pure  Copper  Age,  has  considerably 
extended  this  Mediterranean  culture.  We  now  know 
that  it  spread  over  the  islands  of  the  /Egean  Sea,  and 
its  influence  extended  into  Central  Europe,  along  the 
valley  of  the  Danube  (Austria- Hungary,  Bosnia,  and 
Switzerland).  Crete  and  Cyprus  were  important 
centres.  Indeed  Crete  passed  from  Neolithic  to  Bronze 
civilisation    as   early  as  3000   b.c      By  2500   b.c,  the 

*  See  the  able  discussion  of  the  whole  metal  question  in  the 
introduction  of  Mr.  Read's  Guide  to  the  Antiquities  of  the 
Bronze  Age  (British  Museum).  This  volume  and  its  pre- 
decessor (Stone  Age)  and  successor  (Iron  Age)  are  of  the 
greatest  value  to  students. 


112  Prehistoric  Mam 

period  of  the  second  and  most  prosperous  Hissarlik 
culture,  art  and  luxury  advance  considerably,  and  it  is 
impossible  to  enumerate  the  classes  of  weapons,  pottery, 
etc.,  found  in  the  excavations. 

The  relations  of  this  civilisation  to  Egypt  and 
Babylonia  on  the  one  hand,  and  Europe  on  the  other, 
are  not  wholly  clear.  One  would  be  naturally  disposed 
to  regard  the  /Egean  as  transmitting  the  culture  of  the 
further  east  to  Europe,  but  strong  claims  are  made  for 
native  development  (with  oriental  influence  on  forms  of 
decoration),  and  there  is  no  reason  why  civilisation 
should  not  have  developed  at  more  than  one  centre. 
Perhaps  the  dispute  may  be  evaded  when  we  recollect 
that  shipping  and  commerce  were  well  developed  by  the 
third  millennium  B.C.,  and  a  completely  independent 
development  is  hardly  admissible.  Crete,  the  chief 
centre  of  Mediterranean  culture,  was  in  constant  com- 
munication with  Egypt  long  before  that  time. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  position  of  the  ./Egean  culture 
as  a  centre  of  radiation  over  Europe  is  clear  enough. 
Not  only  does  the  ./Egean  civilisation  lead  on  to  the 
Mycenaean  (at  its  height  about  1500  B.C.),  which  in  turn 
prepares  the  way  for  the  later  Greek  development,  but 
its  culture  spreads  fairly  rapidly  over  Europe.  It  is 
assumed  that  bronze  was  in  use  in  the  ./Egean  between 
2500  and  2000  B.C.,  and  we  saw  that  it  reached  remote 
Britain  and  Scandinavia  by  1800-1700  b.c  It  was 
somewhat  earlier  in  Switzerland,  Austria,  Italy,  Spain, 
and  France.  The  Swiss  lake-villages  again  exhibit  the 
transition  with  singular  clearness,  and  they  and  the 
bronze  graves  supply  a  vast  variety  of  weapons,  utensils, 


The  Metal  Age  and  the  Dawn  of  History      113 

and  ornaments — swords,  spears,  chisels,  fish-hooks,  pins, 
bracelets,  sicldes,  etc.  The  bronze  axe  is  at  first  an 
imitation  of  the  stone  model,  and  we  can  trace  its 
gradual  divergence  into  more  specific  forms.  The 
articles  of  personal  adornment  have  a  peculiar  interest. 
We  find  brooches,  with  fasteners  of  the  safety-pin  type, 
and  bronze  hair-pins  recalling  the  elaborate  hair-dress 
of  the  modern  geisha.  The  pottery  also  advances  in 
make,  but  the  consideration  of  its  many  types  cannot 
be  entered  upon  here. 

Before  many  centuries  Europe  passes  into  the  last 
phase  of  prehistoric  culture.  Europe  was  now  ad- 
vancing so  fast  in  culture,  while  the  older  empires 
were  showing  signs  of  decay,  that  we  are  not  surprised 
to  find  the  claim  that  the  use  of  iron  originated  in  this 
continent.  Although  iron  had  been  known  in  Egypt 
for  some  thousands  of  years,  it  was  not  in  general  use, 
and  it  is  suggested  that  the  Egyptians  merely  employed 
haematite  as  a  hard  stone  for  making  implements,  and 
did  not  smelt  it.  The  Iron  Age  does  not  begin  in  Egypt 
until  about  800  b.c  There  are  no  reliable  indications 
of  its  use  in  Babylonia  or  Persia  before  that  date. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  iron  industry  breaks  out  with 
great  vigour  in  Europe  before  the  end  of  the  second 
millennium  b.c. 

Austria  and  Germany  were  on  the  line  of  the  trade- 
routes  to  the  Baltic  (for  amber)  during  the  Bronze 
period,  and  were  early  quickened  with  the  advancing 
culture.  It  is  at  Hallstatt,  in  the  Austrian  Alps,  where 
we  first  get  a  great  iron  industry.  In  the  thirteenth  or 
twelfth   century,  b.c,   much   earlier   than   any   develop- 

H 


114  Prf.historic  Man 

merit  in  the  older  civilisations,  the  first  Hallstatt  period 
of  the  Iron  Age  began,  and  from  the  Austrian  Alps  the 
use  of  the  new  metal  spread  over  Europe.  Italy  had  it 
in  the  twelfth  century  b.c.  ;  Scandinavia  and  Britain 
received  it  from  500  to  300  b.c.  A  second  Hallstatt 
period  is  dated  from  the  tenth  or  ninth  to  the  sixth 
century  b.c,  and  the  industry  then  centres  at  La  Tene, 
in   Switzerland. 

How  far  the  Iron  Age  is  to  be  regarded  as  prehistoric, 
is,  perhaps,  a  question  of  words,  but  it  is  beyond  both 
the  scope  and  the  limits  of  this  book  to  discuss  it  in 
detail.  The  only  question  that  remains  for  discussion 
is  that  of  the  successive  migrations  into  Britain  of  men 
with  metal  implements,  before  the  Romans  open  the 
historic  period  in  this  island. 

We  have  seen  that  Britain  and  Ireland  were  populated 
in  the  Neolithic  by  a  branch  of  the  European  race,  of 
which  many  still  see  a  remnant  in  the  Basques.  Apart 
from  certain  claims  of  later  invasion — apart  from  Sir 
W.  Turner's  claim  of  a  Neolithic  invasion  of  Scotland 
from  Scandinavia  and  Mr.  Gray's  theory  of  the  passage 
of  an  oriental  people  from  South-west  England  to  the 
north  of  Scotland — the  general  opinion  is  that  this 
Iberian  or  Euscarian  race  remained  in  possession  until 
the  bronze-using  Kelts  invaded  the  island.  A  late  limit 
for  this  invasion  is  fixed  as  the  sixth  or  fifth 
century  b.c,  but  most  writers  consider  that  it  occurred 
much  earlier. 

This  branch  of  the  Keltic  race  was  known  as  the 
Goidhels,  and  has  founded  the  "Gaels  "  of  Ireland  and 
Scotland.      They    are    believed   to    have    been    in    turn 


The  Metal  Age  and  the  Dawn  of  History     115 

displaced  by  a  fresh  Keltic  wave  from  the  Continent 
a  few  centuries  before  Christ.  The  Brythons  drove  the 
Gaels  west  and  north— to  Ireland  and  Scotland — and  it 
is  believed  by  many  that  the  last  remnant  of  the  earlier 
Neolithic  population  was  pressed  to  the  north  of 
Scotland,  and  survived  to  Caesar's  time  in  the  "  Picts." 
Certainly,  the  distribution  of  races  in  the  United 
Kingdom  harmonises  with  the  theory;  but  it  must  be 
added  that  the  efforts  of  philologists  to  detect  linguistic 
elements  of  the  older  language  in  Scotland  and  Ireland 
meet  with  distinguished  opposition ;  nor  does  the 
examination  of  skulls  yield  any  clear  conclusion.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  later  displacement  of  the  Brythons 
by  the  Belgians,  Romans,  and  Saxons,  and  their 
establishment  as  the  Kymry  in  Wales,  belongs  to  the 
domain  of  history. 

the  end. 


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INDEX. 

Acheulean  Stage  of  Paleolithic  Period  ... 

..12 

,  37,  38,  48 

^Cgean  Civilisation 

110,  112 

Africa  connected  with  Europe  ... 

.. 

...     41 

Ages  of  Stone,  Bronze,  and  Iron  determined 

...      6 

Agriculture 

.. 

...     87 

Alphabet,  Origin  of 

,  , 

...  107 

Alpine  Race     ... 

.. 

...     97 

Altamira  Cavern 

...     58 

Amerinds 

...     67 

Andaman  Islanders 

27,  31 

Antediluvians  ... 

7 

Anthropoid  Ape 

...     36 

Anthropology  ... 

.. 

...       3 

Anthropological  Society  (Paris) 

.  . 

...       8 

Ape  Man  of  Java           ...             ...             15,17,27 

,34 

35,  36,  53 

Archeology 

...       3 

Arcy  Remains... 

32,  35 

Arrows 

40,  70 

Artistic  Faculty 

!!49 

55,  65,  84 

Aryan  Race 

94,  97,  102 

Assyrian  Characters 

...  107 

Aurillac,  Eoliths  of 

...     23 

Australian  Native 

34,  36,  81 

Avebury,  Lord 

25,  26 

Avebury  Monuments    ... 

97,  99 

Axe     ...            ...            ...            ...            ,,,            . 

...     72 

Azilian  Period... 

•• 

...     13 

Barrows 

89,  92 

Basques 

94,  96,  114 

Beevor,  Sir  Hugh  R.    ... 

•  ••     2o 

Berber  Tribe    ... 

•  •  *      o9 

Blackmore,  Dr. 

26,  72 

Boncelles,  Eoliths  of    ... 

...     23 

Bone  Instruments 

...     54 

Boule,  M. 

..35 

49,  52,  68 

Bourgeois,  Abbe 

8,  22 

Bouysonnie  Abbe's,  J.  and  A.     ... 

•  ••         OO 

Brain  Development 

•  •  •      Do 

Britain  connected  with  Continent 

...     41 

Britain,  Earliest  Inhabitants     ... 

.  , 

...     27 

121 


122  !   dbx 

Broca,  H.         ...            ...            ...  ...  ...  8,  99 

Bronze              ...             ...             ...  ...  74,108,109,110 

Bronze  Age      ...             ...             ...  ...  82,86,87,88,111 

Brown,  Air.      ...             ...             ...  ...  ...  ...     64 

Bruniquel  Remains       ...            ...  ...  ...  •••     52 

Br'unn  Remains              ...             ...  ...  ...  51,  67 

Briix  Remains...             ...             ...  ...  ...  32,  51,  67 

Bulb  of  Percussion        ...             ...  ...  ...  ...     38 

Burial  of  Dead               ...            44,  51,  70,  90,  106 

Bury  St.  Edmunds  Remains      ...  ...  ...  32,  50 

Bushmen          ...             ...             ...  ...  ...  68,  81 

Caanstadt  Race             ...            ...  ...  ...  ...     69 

Calaveras  Skull              ...             ...  ...  ...  ...     23 

California  Remains       ...             ...  ...  ...  ...     23 

Cambarolies  Cave        ...           ...  ...  ...  ...    58 

Cave-bear  Period          ...            ...  ...  ...  •••     37 

Cave  Men         ...             ...             ...  ...  ...  12,  37,  54 

Cave  Period     ...             ...             ...  ...  ...  ...     50 

Celt  Flints       ...            ...            ...  ...  ...  •••     38 

Cervidian  Period            ...             ...  ...  ...  •••     38 

Chancelade  Remains    ...             ...  ...  ...  52,  67 

Chapelle-aux-Saints  Remains    ...  ...  ...  35,  36,  44 

Cheilean  Implements   ...             ...  ...  ...  -■•     46 

Chellean  Stage  of  Paleolithic  Period      ...  12,  37,  48,  49,  50 

Chinese  Language         ...             ...  ...  ...  •••  107 

Chopper            ...             ...             ...  ...  ...  •••     72 

Chronology,  difficult  to  determine  ...  ...  15,  29,  108 

Civilisation,  Beginning  of           ...  ...  ...  •••  103 

Civilisation's  first  development...  ...  ...  ...     70 

Classification  of  Relics                ...  ...  ...  ...     37 

Clichy  Remains              ...             ...  ...  ...  •••     51 

Climate  of  Europe  in  Miocene  Period    ...  ...  ...     26 

Clodd,  Mr 83 

Clothing            40,  46,  49,  59,  87 

Colour  as  Criterion  of  Race        ...  ...  ...  •••  102 

Commanders'  Batons  ...            ...  ...  •••  •••     58 

Copper              108,  109 

Coup  de  Poing               38,  39,  40 

Crannoges  of  Ireland    ...            ...  ...  •••  •••     85 

Cromlechs        ...             ...             ...  •••  •••  •••     91 

Cro-Magnon  Skeleton  ...            ...  ...  ...  52,  69 

Cuvier,  M.       ...           ...           ...  •••  >••  •••      6 

Darwin,  Charles 

Darwin,  Erasmus          ...            ...  ...  •••  •••      5 

Darwin,  Origin  of  Species          ...  ...  •••  •••      8 

Dawkins,  Prof.  Boyd    ...            ...  ...  •••  •••    65 

Dene-holes       ...            ...            •••  —  •••  •••  1°° 

Deniker,  Dr.  J.              ...            >••  •••  •••  *••     ^9 

Denise  Remains            ...            •••  •••  •••  •••    51 


46  to  62 

7 

•  ■  * 

7 

•          «  •  • 

91 

49,  55, 

65 

89, 

92 

17 

•          •  •  • 

14 

•          •  •  • 

47 

. 

47 

.105,  106, 

107 

•          •  •  ■ 

48 

32, 

,51 

42, 

,47 

•  •  • 

24 

32 

,51 

21 

Index  123 

Development  during  Old  Stone  Age 
Diluvium  ...  ...  •  •• 

Discoveries  treated  with  disdain 

Dolmens 

Drawing 

Druids 

Dubois,  Dr.  Eugene 

Duration  of  Geological  Periods 

Duration  of  Old  Stone  Age 

Duration  of  Quaternary  Period... 

Egypt 

Elephants 

Engis  (Belgium)  Remains 

English  Channel 

English  Eoliths 

Enguisheim  (Alsace)  Remains... 

Eocene  Period 

Eoliths  11,15,22,23,24,25,27,47,72 

Eolithic  Man •••     28 

Eolithic  Period  12,  28,  37,  64,  72 

Eskimo  .  ...  53,  57,  59,  67,  90 

Europe — Climate  during  Miocene  Period  ...  ...    26 

Euskarians       ...  ...  ...  •••  •••  ■■•     98 

Evans,  A.         ...  ...  ...  •••  •••  •■•_  98 

Evans,  Sir  John  ...  ...  ...  •••         7,15,25 

Evolution         ...  ...  ...  •••  •••  •••      * 

Fairies              ...            ...            ■  ••            •••  •  ••  •••      *> 

Family  Life  in  Paleolithic  Period           ...  ...  •••     43 

Fire    ...            ...            ...            •••            •••  ••■  44-  60 

Flints  found  at  Ightham,  Kent ...            ...  ...  •••     24 

Flints  found  by  Abbe  Bourgeois              ...  ...  8,  22 

Flint  Implements           5,  22,  37,  38,  46,  48,  49,  54,  72 

Flint  Mines      ...            ...            ...            •••  •••  •••     73 

Flints  produced  by  pressure      ...            ...  ...  •■•     54 

Flints,  Sharpening  of   ...             ...             ...  ...  •  ••     27 

French  Scheme  of  Classification  of  Relics  ...  ...     37 

Funeral  Feasts              ...            ...            ...  ...  •••     44 

Furfooz  Skull  ...             ...             ...             ...  •••  52,  69 

Galley  Hill  (Kent)  Remains  .'  32,  50,  67 

Geological  Divisions     ...  ...             ...             ...  •••     14 

Geology's  Claim            ...  ...            ...            •  ••  •  ••      8 

German  Ocean                ...  ...            ...            •••  42,  47 

Gibraltar  Remains         ...  ...             ...             ...  32,  50,  67 

Glacial  Period...            ...  ...            ...            ...  41,  48 

Gowland,  Prof.              ...  ...            ...            •••  ••■     98 

Graves              ...            ...  ...            •••            ••>  •••     89 

Gray,  Mr 98,  114 

Greenwell,  Canon         ...  ...           ...           ...  •••    93 


124  Index 

Gough's  Cavern  (near  Cheddar)  Remains  ...  ...    52 

Grenelle  Remains          ...            ...            ...  ...  52,  69 

Grimaldi  Remains         ...            ...            ...  ...  63,  70,  76 

Grime's  Graves             ...            ...            ...  ...  ...     73 


Haddon,  Prof.               ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  102 

Harpoons         ...            ...  ...  ...  ...  ...    49 

Harrison,  Benjamin      ...  ...  ...  ...  24,  25 

Hauser,  Swiss  Explorer  ...  ...  ...  ...    33 

Heidelberg  Jaw              ...  ...  ...  ...  ...     34 

Hiatus  between  Paleolithic  and  Neolithic  Ages  ...  ...     63 

Hippie  or  Horse  Period  ...  ...  ...  ...     3S 

Hippopotamus                ...  ...  ...  ...  42,  48 

Hoernes,  Dr.  M.  ...  ...    15,  18,  19,  49,  52,  68,  87,  100 

Human  Remains           ...  ...  ...  ...  10,  31 

Human  Workmanship...  ...  ...  ...  ...     22 

Hut  Circles      ...            ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  100 

Huxley,  Prof.  ...            ...  ...  ...  ...  8,  31 


l  Dcr  isuus  •••  •••  •••  •••  •••  •••     "«» 

Ice  Age  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...       40,41,48 

Ightham  (Kent),  Flints  found  at  ...  ...  ...     24 

Implements,  Stone        ...  ...5,22,37,38,46,48,49,54,72 

Indian  Ocean  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  19,  20 

Indo-European  Race    ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  102 

International  Congress  of  Anthropology  and  Prehistoric 


Archaeology  of  1867 

•  •• 

•  .  . 

8,  22 

Ipswich  Discovery 

... 

... 

... 

•  •• 

...     38 

Iron    ... 

... 

•  •• 

•  •• 

•  •• 

...   10S 

Iron  Age 

... 

•  •• 

__ 

•  •• 

...  114 

Iverians 

... 

•  •• 

... 

•  •  • 

...     93 

Java  Remains ... 

... 

•  •• 

15,  17, 

27,  34, 

35,  36,  53 

Javelin 

... 

•  •• 

40,  49 

Johnson,  J.  P. 

... 

•  •• 

•  •• 

... 

...     29 

Johnston,  Sir  Harry 

... 

•  •• 

•  •• 

•  •• 

...     76 

Karnac  Monument 

••• 

•  •• 

...     98 

Keane,  Dr. 

•  •• 

15,  21,  23, 

25,  26, 

47,  49,  71 

Keller 

#  # 

... 

...       8 

Kendall,  Rev.  H.  G. 

O. 

... 

... 

... 

...     77 

Kitchen  Middens 

... 

... 

... 

...     78 

Kit's  Coty  Hole  (Kent) 

*•  • 

a  •  • 

...     91 

Klaatsch,  Prof. 

•  •  • 

19,  23, 

26,  33,  50 

Knuckle-duster 

__  _ 

•  •  • 

•  •  • 

...     3^) 

Kollmann 

•  •• 

•  •• 

•  •  • 

•  a  • 

...     75 

Krapina  Remains 

•  •« 

•  •• 

•  •• 

•  •• 

33,  35 

Index  125 

Lamarck,  Jean              ...  ...  ...  ...  ...      5 

La  Naulette  Remains   ...  ...  ...  ...  32,  35 

Lance  Heads  ...            ...  ...  ...  ...  40,  49 

Language         ...             ...  ...  ...  ...  ••■   106 

Lankester,  Sir  E.  Ray...  ...  ...  ...       25,  26,  53 

Laugerie  Basse  Remains  ...  ...  ...  51,  67 

La  Vezere  Skeleton      ...  ...  ...  ...33,  34,  35,  36 

Leiotrichi          ...             ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  102 

Lemurs             ...             ...  ...  ...  ...  ...     21 

Lengths  of  Geological  Periods  ...  ...  ...  ...     14 

Lockyer,  Sir  Norman   ...  ...  ...  ...  91,  98 

Lucretius          ...             ...  ...  ...  ...  ...       4 

Lyell,  Sir  Charles          ...  ...  ...  ...  ...       8 

MacCurdy,  G.  G.  ...  24,100 

Mafflian  Stage  of  Eolithic  Period  ...  ...  ...     12 

Magdalcnian  Stage  of  Paleolithic  Period 

12,  37,  38,  49,  50,  51,  52,  54,  55,  56,  57.  60,  61,  63,  64,  69,  70,  72 
Malarnaud  Remains      ...  ...  ...  ...  32,  35 

Mammoth  Period  ...  ...  ...  ...  37,  50 

Mammoths       ...  ...  ...  ...  ...       48,  53,  55 

Mauer  Remains  ...  ...  ...  ...34,  35,  36,  46 

Mediterranean  Race     ...  ...  ...  ...  •••     83 

Megaliths         ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  •••     89 

Menhir  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...     91 

Men  of  Early  Stone  Age  ...  ...  ...  •••     10 

Mentone  Remains         ...  ...  ...  52,  55,  68,  69,  70 

Mesolithic  Period  13,49,51,63 

Mesoliths  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  •••     64 

Mesvinian  Stage  of  Eolithic  Period        ...  ...  ...     12 

Metal  Age        101 

Micro'.iths         ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...     77 

Middle  Stone  Age  13,63 

Miocene  Period  ...  ...      20,  21,  22,  23,  26,  28,  36,  41 

Missing  Link  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...     18 

Modern  Tribes  still  in  Old  Stone  Age     ...  ...  ...     11 

Monoliths  ...  ...  ...  ...  .••  •••     91 

Monuments,  Stone        ...  ...  ...  ...  •••     89 

Mortillet,  G.  de  ...  8,  15,  22,  23,  26,  37,  40,  47,  59,  70,  100 
Mousterian  Stage  of  Paleolithic  Period...  12,  37,  4S,  49,  50,  68 
Munro,  Dr 44,  52,  99 

Name  of  the  Science    ...  ...  ...  ...  •■•      3 

Neanderthal  Man  ...    7,30,34,35,36,40,41,47,50,53,64 

Negroids  ...  102,  103 

Neolithic  Period  11,  13,  15,  40,  46,  47,  49,  51,  52,  63  to  100 

Neolithic  Pile  Dwellings  9,  72,  78,  82,  85 

Neusch,  Dr.     ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  •••     75 

New  Stone  Age  10,  63  to  100 

Nude  Condition  of  Inhabitants...  ...  ...       40,  42,  59 


123  Index 

0!">cima1er,  Dr.              ...            ...  ...  ...            ...     39 

Old  Stone  Age                ...             ...  ...  10,  28,  29,  46  to  62 

Ongocene  Period           ...            ...  ...  ...            ...     23 

Olma  Remains               ...            ...  ...  ...            ...     51 

Otta  (Portugal),  Flints  found  at  ...  ...            ...    23 

Paleolithic  Implements  ...  ...  ...  ...    36 

Paleolithic  Man  ...  20,  28,  30,  31,  32,  33,  35,  37,  45,  47,  76 

Paleolithic  Period  12,  13,  15,  29  to  62,  63,  64,  67,  69,  70,  72,  106 
Palms  growing  in  France  and  south  of  Britain   ...  ...     27 

Papalian  Period  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...     38 

Papuans  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  81,  86 

Parker,  St.  John  39 

Pelasgians        ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...     93 

Petrie,  Prof.  Flinders  ...  103,  104,  110 

Phases  through  which  humanity  passca  ...  ...     36 

Picts  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  94,  115 

Piette,  M.         ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...     55 

Pile  Dwellings  9,  72,  78,  82,  85 

Pit  Dwellings 100 

Pithecanthropus  Erectus  ...  ...  ...  •••     19 

Pithecoid  Features        ...  ...  ...  ...  ■••     36 

Pleistocene  Period        ...  ...  ...  21,34,35,41,47 

Pliocene  Period  19.21,27,34,36,41,47 

Podbaba  Remains         ...  ...  ...  ...  32,  51 

Pottery  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  •••     83 

Predmost  Remains        ...  ...  ...  ...  32,  51 

Prehistoric  Development,  Phases  of       ...  ...  ...     13 

Prejudice  against  Evolution       ...  ...  ...  ...       5 

Prejudice  Overcome      ...  ...  ...  ...  ...       7 

Prestwich,  Sir  Joseph  ...  ...  ...  ...  7,  25 

Primate  Family  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...     19 

Problem  of  Race  ...  ...  ...  ...  •••    66 

Purgatory  Hammers    ...  ...  ...  ...  ...      6 

Puy-Courny,  Flints  found  at      ...  ...  ...  •••     23 

Pygmy  Implements      ...  ...  ...  ...  •••     75 

Pygmy  Skeletons  at  Schweitzersbild      ...  ...  ...     75 

Quaternary  Period        14,  28,  30,  47,  68 

Race  Problem...            ...            ...            ...            •••  •••     66 

Races  Grouped              ...            ...            ...            •••  •••  102 

Red  Indians     ...            ...            ...            ...            ...  59,  103 

Reindeer           ...             ...             ...             ...             ...  54,  55 

Reindeer  of  Thayngen  ...            ...            ...            ...  •••    56 

Reindeer  Period             37,  38,  49,  50 

Reinhardt,  Dr.               ...            ...            ...            ...  •••     33 

Relation  of  Tertiary  Man  to  Development  of  Earth  ...     26 

Relics  of  Human  Workmanship               ...             ...  •••     22 

Religious  Belief             ...            ...            ...            •••  ••■     44 


Index  127 

Remains  of  Human  Beings        ...  ...  ...  10,31 

Rcutilian  Stage  of  Eolithic  Period  ...  ...  ...     VI 

Rhinocerous     ...  ...  ...  •••  •••  *2,  4^ 

Ridgeway,  Prof.  ...  ...  ...  •••  67,  110 

River-Drift  Men  12,  37,  42,  50 

Rutot,  M 12,23,24,26 

St.  Acheul        ...  ...  ...  ...  •••  —    39 

Salmon,  Prof....  ...  ...  ...  •••  ••■     49 

Schipka  (Moravia)  Remains      ...  ...  ...  32,  51 

Schoetensach,  Dr.  Otto  ...  ...  ...  •■•     34 

Schwalbe  50,  67 

Schwartz,  Prof.  ...  ...  26 

Schweinfurth  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  26,  29 

Schweitzersbild  Skeletons  of  Pygmies   ...  ...  ...     75 

Scotch  Superstitions     ...  ...  ...  ...  •••       6 

Scraper  ...  ...  ...  ...  ••■  ...     39 

Sergi,  Prof.      ...  23,  26,  52,  64,  83,  95 

Sharpening  of  Flints     ...  ...  ...  ...  ...     27 

Shell  Mounds  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  •••     78 

Slowness  of  Advance    ...  ...  ...  ...  ...     46 

Smith,  Mr.  Worthington  ...  ...  24,  25,  40,  43,  61,  100 

Social  Life  during  Paleolithic  Period      ...  ...       43,  49,  57 

Sollas,  Prof. 24,  100 

Solutrfe  Remains  ...  ...  ...  •••  •••     52 

Solutrean  Stage  of  Paleolithic  Period    12,  37,  38,  49,  5  >,  54,  61 
Somaliland       ...  ...  ...  ...  •••  ...     67 

Sordes  Remains  ...  ...  ...  ...  51,67 

Souterrains      ...  ...  ...  ...  •••  •••  100 

Speech  43,  59 

Spy  Remains  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...31,  33,  35,  36 

Stone  Age        ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ••■     10 

Stone  Implements  ...  ...5,  22,  37,  3S,  46,  48,  49,  54,  72 

Stonehenge 97,  98 

Stone  Monuments         ...  ...  ...  ...  ...     89 

Straight-haired  Men     ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  102 

Strepyian  Stage  of  Paleolithic  Period    ...  ...  ...     12 

Tasmanians      ...  ...  ...    11,23,27,43,44,53,81,106 

Taubach  Remains          ...  ...  ...  ...             ...     32 

Tertiary  Man  ...             ...  ...  ...  9,  22,  23,  26,  28,  47 

Tertiary  Period               ...  ...  ...  14,15,21,23,47 

Tests  of  Flints                ...  ...  ...  ...             ...     39 

Thanes              ...             ...  ...  ...  ...              42,  46 

Thayngen,  Drawing  of  Reindeer  ...  ...  ...     56 

Thenay,  Flints  found  at  ...  ...  ...         8,  22,  26 

Theory  of  the  Middle  Ages  ...  ...  ...            ...      5 

Thurnam,  Dr. ...             ...  ...  ...  ...             ...     93 

Tierra  del  Fuego  Inhabitants  ...  ...  ...            ...     78 


128 


Index 


Tilbury  Remains 
Traditions 
Trepanned  Skulls 
Turner,  Sir  W. 

Vatican  Museum 
Veddahs 
Vcrnau,  M. 
Vczcre  Man 
Villeneuve,  M. 
Virchow,  Prof.  Rudolph 

Walcott 

Wavy-haired  Races 
Weapons 

Windle,  Dr 

Woolly-haired  Races    .. 
Workshop  Floors 

Yahgans 
Yellow  Races  ... 


33 


24,  26 


#, 

32 

,  50 

.. 

•  •• 

4 

. . 

■  ■  • 

99 

15, 

47, 

71, 

114 

6 

31 

,43 

52 

,  68 

,34 

,  35 

,  36 

48 

•  •  • 

64 

9 

,  18 

47 

... 

102 

46 

77, 

92, 

97, 

100 

•  •• 

102 

... 

57 

43 

,  78 

,81 

•  •a 

103 

Zoological  Congress  (.Leyden)  1894 


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